Emulsified oil fouling resistant cellulose acetate-MoS2-nanocomposite membrane for oily wastewater remediation

This study evaluated the performance stability of amphiphilic cellulose acetate-MoS2-nanocomposite membranes (CMN) on oil removal and flux, oil fouling trends, as well as MoS2's catalytic peroxidase-like efficiency for oily wastewater treatment. When H2O2 was present in the feed, the membrane consistently achieved oil removal rates as high as 83.12 %, with only <10 % flux decline over an 80-minute filtration. During longer-term filtration of 4-6 h, the CMN membrane also exhibited significantly lower overall flux decline rates compared to the neat membrane with flux decline rates of 16.27 %, which was half of the cellulose membrane flux of 39.38 %. The fouling resistant performance was underpinned by the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) via catalytic reactions of MoS2 and H2O2. Coumarin was use as ROS scavenging agent and confirmed that the ROS amount was affected by the MoS2 and H2O2 dosages. The CMN membrane achieved the oil removal to the permissible discharge limit for low concentration wastewater. As a low-pressure membrane, it offered advantages of less energy consumption and continuously operating mode without frequent chemical cleaning and desorption. These findings support the CMN membrane's potential as a promising solution for treating industrial oily wastewater.