Influence of ethanol as bore fluid component on the morphological structure and performance of PES hollow fiber membrane for oil in water separation

The relationships among varying bore fluid compositions containing ethanol/water were studied. The ethanol composition was varied in the ratio of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. The membrane dope solutions were prepared from 17.25 wt% polyethersulfone (PES), 0.75 wt% polyethylene glycol (PEG), 3 wt% silicon dioxide sol and 78.25 wt% of 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) via dry-jet spinning process. The membranes' morphology as a result of varying ethanol ratio in the bore fluid composition was characterized and their effects on crude oil/water emulsion separation were evaluated. Results show that the membrane pore size and porosity decreased with increasing ethanol content in the bore fluid mixture, whereas the inner wall thickness of fibers increased. Furthermore, an increase in ethanol concentration also resulted in a slight increase in water contact angle. The use of 100/0 of ethanol/water resulted in UF membranes with the lowest performance. On the other hand, bore fluid mixture containing 25/75 ethanol/water produced membrane with the best performance for crude oil/water separation. Overall, the use of bore fluid mixture containing 25/75 ethanol/water mixture was found to be a powerful way to tune the morphological properties and performance of HF membrane.