Separation of Ammonia from Wastewater by Photocatalyst/Membrane Process Hybrid System

In this research, the performance of photocatalyst/membrane process hybrid system was investigated for the ammonia removal from the wastewater. The prepared membranes were ultrafiltrasion (UF) using the polyethersulfone (PES) by the phase inversion method. Synthetic fumarat alumoxan nanoparticle was used as the additive in the preparation of membrane. The photocatalyst was zinc oxide (ZnO) fixed on a light expanded clay aggregate support named LECA. The effect of the parameters containing amonia initial concetration, nanoparticle content and the treatment process duration on the amonia removal was investigated. The photocatalyst and membrane systems were employed separately and their performance including the flux and rejection was compared with the hybrid system. The results showed that the photocatalyst system was able to remove the amonia at high flux level, well. By consideration of the amonia flux and its removal percentage, the best performance was obtained for the membrane prepared by the PES with 2 wt.% nanoparticle. In hybrid system, firstly, the ammonia was reached to the low concentration and then, the membrane peocess removed this low concentration of ammonia.