Applications of Synthesized Nanocomposite Membranes for Water Purification in Iraqi Brackish Water

Abstract

The objective of this research is to study the properties of salt water in Wassit Province (Iraq), represented by water of general downstream river( TDS 4054 mg/L), that established to be channel tanker salt water to the Gulf and means to revive more than 6 million acres of farmland in order to increase the yield produced by this land. Trying purified, using nanoscale membranes containing MWCNTs and MCM-41 nanomaterial. Poly sulfone support layers were containing (0.0, and 0.4w. %) MWCNTs are used as ultrafiltration membranes and two types of synthesis membranes, TFC (thin film composite membrane) and 0.05TFN0.4 (nanocomposite membrane containing 0.4w. %MWCNTs in support layer and 0.05w. % MCM-41 in thin layer) were used in this study. All types of membranes were synthesized in laboratory of Building and Construction Engineering Department – University of Technology- Baghdad using chemical ACS reagents grade. The application of the synthesized nanocoposite membrane shows good capability of producing purified water from general downstream salt water (TDS 256 mg/L).  As a result (0.05TFN0.4) membrane show it is more stable and less losses in pure water flux than (TFC) membrane. These properties explained due to antifouling properties of MWCNTs and its formation of macro voids in support layer in addition the pore structure of MCM-41 in the thin film. It was expected that collection of detailed information about the characteristic of downstream raw water with pilot study of the raw water pretreatment with perfect choice of TFN materials make possible to produce a good quality of water with economic price.

Keywords: application, nanocomposite, water, brackish, Iraq