A novel electrospun polysulfone fiber membrane: application to advanced treatment of secondary bio-treatment sewage

Electrospun nanofibers and fine fibers have been used to remove submicron particles in air filtration. In this paper, direct-and polyaluminium chloride (PAC) pre-coagulation filtration of secondary bio-treatment sewage was studied using electrospun polysulfone fiber membrane (EPSFM). According to the results obtained, for direct filtration, suspended solids (SS), chemical oxygen demand (COD(Cr)) and NH3-N decreased 86.7, 71.2, 91.7% respectively, in filtrate of secondary bio-treatment sewage, while for PAC pre-coagulation filtration, the removal rate of SS, COD(Cr) and NH3-N reached 91.3, 85.3, 93.3 % respectively. EPSFM had a high efficiency in removing NH3-N, COD(Cr) and SS, especially for micron and submicron particles. EPSFM can reduce the content of some toxic metals, such as Cu, Zn and Ti, through interception and adsorption mechanism and can also remove dissolved organic matter such as humics and proteins through interception mechanism. EPSFM can remove some of volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) by adsorption and filtration, the removal rate of VOCs was in the range of 59-100 %. The number of VOCs in secondary bio-treatment sewage and its filtrate from direct filtration were 27 and 18 respectively, the major VOCs were benzene-, cyclohexane-, adamantine- and hydrocarbon derivates.