Effect of polymaleic acid and microwave radiations on reverse osmosis membrane's performance and properties: A response surface methodology approach

Abstract

Polymaleic acid was tested for its ability to control inorganic fouling in reverse osmosis (RO) system for the first time as a membrane surface modifier. Using the design of experiments (DoE) based on the response surface methodological (RSM) approach, the effect of polymaleic acid concentration and microwave radiation time duration was studied on the membrane permeation properties. Considering the objective of achieving maximum water permeance and salt rejection properties, the conditions of polymerization were optimized using RSM and experimentally validated in the lab. At the optimum conditions of 10 mg·L−1 polymaleic acid, and 27 s radiation time, the pure water permeance and salt rejection were 3.05 L·m−2·h−1·bar−1, and 97.8 %, respectively. The optimized membrane was characterized through microscopic and spectroscopic techniques. When tested for its performance under inorganic fouling conditions, the modified membrane demonstrated a negligible decline in permeate flux for 6 h, and no formation of calcium sulfate precipitates on the membrane surface. This research aims to promote the development, optimization, and application of dual-functional RO membranes that can control different types of membrane fouling.