Development of Cost-Effective Reverse Osmosis Membrane for Domestic Use in Pakistan

Abstract

In the fast-changing modern world, fabrication of membrane is one of the rising technologies. Although membrane fabrication is mostly used in filtration process, most people still unaware of capabilities of membrane sheet could give a strong impact on the finishing product outcome. This research mainly focus on the identifying the optimum formulation of four different membranes fabrications (M1, M2, M3 and M4). This study also investigates the performance of the optimum membranes. Fabrication of M1 with melt blown and single-ply stiff cotton sheet, M2 with melt blown and feed spacer, M3 with polypropylene and stiff cotton sheet and M4 with single- ply stiff cotton and feed spacer was done. Total n=16 samples were collected from these membranes, n=8 samples were collected from market-based membranes and n=5 samples were collected from tap water from laboratory of university of veterinary and animal sciences, Lahore. Further analysis was conducted which include ten parameters pH, EC, TDS, COɜ, HCOɜ, Cl⁻, Na, K, Ca⁺ and Mg⁺. Comparative analysis done with two market-based RO membrane. Among these parameters total dissolved solids (TDS) was a major concern of this study the results showed that the values of TDS in our manufactured membranes were under acceptable range that was ranged from 194- 210 mg/L while TDS value of tap water was 234 mg/L and market-based membranes was 190 mg/L. It was concluded that four fabricated membranes gave positive results. For statistical analysis one-way ANOVA was used for evaluation of level of significance and no significance. Except pH and Ca⁺ and Mg⁺ all parameters showed level of significance between groups as they have p values less than 0.05.