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Multienzyme Immobilization on PVDF Membrane via One-Step Mussel-Inspired Method: Enhancing Fouling Resistance and
Jéssica Mulinari1,2, Diane Rigo1,2, Carolina Elisa Demaman Oro1,2
1TransferTech Gestão de Inovação, Erechim 99700-420, Brazil.
Membranes
|October 25, 2024
Summary
Enzyme-immobilized membranes offer self-cleaning capabilities, significantly reducing fouling and enhancing filtration performance in water treatment. This biocatalytic approach improves water permeance compared to unmodified membranes.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Biotechnology
- Environmental Engineering
Background:
- Membrane fouling is a major challenge in water treatment, reducing filtration efficiency and increasing operational costs.
- Biocatalytic active membranes with self-cleaning properties can mitigate fouling by degrading foulants.
- Enzyme immobilization on membrane surfaces offers a promising strategy to create such advanced materials.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and characterize enzyme-immobilized poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) microfiltration membranes for enhanced fouling resistance.
- To optimize the immobilization process for protease, lipase, and amylase on PVDF membranes.
- To evaluate the self-cleaning capacity and filtration performance of the modified membranes in complex foulant mixtures and simulated wastewater.
Main Methods:
- One-step immobilization of protease, lipase, and amylase onto PVDF membranes using a polydopamine coating.
- Optimization of dopamine hydrochloride and enzyme concentrations for maximal hydrolytic activity.
- Filtration tests using protein, lipid, and carbohydrate mixtures, and milk powder solution to assess water permeance and fouling resistance over multiple cycles.
- Measurement of water contact angle to evaluate changes in membrane hydrophilicity.
Main Results:
- Optimized immobilization yielded high hydrolytic activities: amylase (0.90 mg starch/min·cm²), protease (10.16 nmol tyrosine/min·cm²), and lipase (20.48 µmol p-nitrophenol/min·cm²).
- Modified membranes retained significantly higher water permeance (41-28%) compared to pristine membranes (23-8%) after three filtration cycles with a mixed foulant solution.
- In simulated dairy wastewater filtration, modified membranes maintained 26-28% of initial water permeance, outperforming pristine membranes (7-34%).
Conclusions:
- Enzyme-immobilized PVDF membranes exhibit enhanced fouling resistance and self-cleaning properties.
- The improved performance is attributed to increased membrane hydrophilicity and enzymatic degradation of foulants.
- This biocatalytic membrane technology shows potential for efficient treatment of complex industrial wastewater, such as from the dairy industry.
