title: Ultrafiltration membrane for effective removal of chromium ions from potable water.
abstract: The objective of the present work was to investigate the efficacy of indigenously developed polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based ultrafiltration (UF) membrane for chromium ions removal from potable water. The hydrolyzed PAN membranes effectively rejected chromium anions in the feed ranging from 250 ppb to 400 ppm and a rejection of ≥90% was achieved for pH ≥ 7 at low chromate concentration (≤25 ppm) in feed. The rejection mechanism of chromium ions was strongly dependent on Donnan exclusion principle, while size exclusion principle for UF did not play a major role on ions rejection. Feed pH played a vital role in changing porosity of membrane, which influenced the retention behavior of chromate ions. Cross-flow velocity, pressure did not play significant role for ions rejection at low feed concentration. However, at higher feed concentration (≥400 ppm), concentration polarization became important and it reduced the chromate rejection to 32% at low cross flow and high pressure. Donnan steric-partitioning pore and dielectric exclusion model (DSPM-DE) was applied to evaluate the chromate ions transport through PAN UF membrane as a function of flux by using optimized model parameters and the simulated data matched well with experimental results.
authors.affiliation: King Abdullah Institute for Nanotechnology, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, SAUDI ARABIA.|Department of Biochemical Engineering &Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi, 110016, INDIA.
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Muthumareeswaran
authors.affiliation: King Abdullah Institute for Nanotechnology, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, SAUDI ARABIA.|College of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh, 11421, SAUDI ARABIA.
authors.forename: Mansour
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alhoshan
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemical Engineering &Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi, 110016, INDIA.
authors.forename: Gopal Prasad
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Agarwal