Low-cost membrane from polyethylene terephthalate bottle waste for water purification and chromium removal: modification and application

Abstract

River water has become contaminated with numerous hazardous compounds due to the rapid rise in population and industry expansion. Due to unchecked population growth and the improper disposal of electroplating industrial waste, issues with river water filtration and the elimination of chromium contamination have developed. Various technologies have been developed to overcome these problems. One of the technologies that have been proposed until now is membrane technology. On the other hand, the waste from plastic bottles, which grows yearly and now weighs 381.73 million tons, can create thin films or layers. Therefore, there is a lot of potential in employing plastic bottle trash as a low-cost, sustainable, and eco-friendly membrane material. In this study, the immersion-precipitation phase inversion method was used in the membrane preparation process from plastic bottle waste by modifying fillers (zeolite-NaY) and additives (LiCl and PEG-400) to improve membrane performance. The effect of filler and additive modification on the fabricated membrane was studied for its performance in water purification and chromium ion contaminant removal. The results demonstrated that the modified LiCl membrane performed optimally for water purification and the removal of chromium ions, along with a reduction in turbidity to 1.42 NTU (from 400 NTU) and a 54.75% removal of chromium.