Novel covalent organic framework (COF) thin-film composite nanofiltration membrane for effective removal of organic compounds from petroleum produced water

Petroleum-produced water is the co-produced aqueous liquid phase along with the oil and/or gas phases during petroleum production operations. It’s considered the largest waste stream associated with oil and gas extraction. The treatment and further reuse of produced water are essential to address environmental protection and global water scarcity challenges. Although there are adequate technologies to remove the bulk of organic matter in produced water, the removal of small organic matter remains a challenge. A novel thin-film composite nanofiltration membrane with an active layer made with a covalent organic framework (COF) developed in the early phases of this study was used to investigate its rejection capability for organic model compounds present in treated produced water. Permeation experiments with the COF membrane resulted in 60-70% rejection for three model compounds, Propyl-, Butyl- and Pentyl-benzoic acids, along with 85-90% rejection of the higher-molecular weight organic surrogate, Rhodamine-WT (R-WT), and less than 10% rejection of model inorganic salt, NaCl. The solution-diffusion model was used to determine the permeation parameters for model compounds. The model revealed that a significant portion of the overall permeation was due to advection through imperfections. The model was applied to demonstrate that further refinement of the COF membranes focusing on eliminating the imperfections would result in the model compound rejection increasing to 90-95%.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Environ Engr in Civil Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2021

Author dc:creator

• Ni, Weiqi

Contributors dc:contributor

• Marinas, Benito Jose

• Membrane Separation
• Nanofiltration
• Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs)
• Petroleum Produced Water
• Rejection Performance Model

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2020 Weiqi Ni

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109640

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/109640