LOW-COST TREATMENT OF REAL EFFLUENT WASTEWATER CONTAINING LEAD IONS USING CARBOXYMETHYL CELLULOSE AND POLYMETHYL METHACRYLATE BASED MEMBRANES

Membrane technologies have emerged as a great possibility in wastewater treatment, exhibiting high selectivity, resulting in high-quality effluent and low sludge production, with reduced equipment size and low energy requirements, being low cost and allowing to merge several treatment processes into one. The aim of this work has been the synthesis of new polymeric membranes for water purification, especially for the removal of various toxic pollutants, such as lead (II) ions. One of the most promising solutions for recycling and reusing wastewater is the installation of membrane filtration systems that can guarantee water purification. During this work, a new class of organic membranes for ions elimination was developed. The membranes were synthesized using carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and poly-methyl methacrylate (PMMA), plasticized by dioctyl phtalate (DOP) or glycerol, and modified by the incorporation of D2EHPA using as a selective carrier. All synthesized membranes were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and contact angle measurements. A study of Pb(II) retention using the synthesized membranes was realized. Dialysis experiments of Pb(II) transfer across the polymer inclusion membranes have proved their good performance. The treatment of an industrial effluent containing 56.5 mg.L-1 of lead gave very satisfactory results, where it was noticed that the membranes based on DOP eliminated practically 58% of lead.