Performance of photocatalytic ceramic membrane for hospital effluent treatment

This study aims to investigate the effect of binder used in dip-coating techniques on ceramic photocatalytic membrane reactor (PMR) and to evaluate the performance of the PMR in the treatment of secondary effluent from two hospitals. The catalytic membrane was dipped and coated with TiO2, then either sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) or polyethylene glycol (PEG) was used as binders. The photocatalytic membranes were characterized using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Organic matter in the wastewater effluent was measured and characterized using chemical oxygen demand, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and fluorescent excitation-emission matrix (EEM). DOC removal efficiencies of the PMR experiments using the TiO2-PEG and the TiO2-SLS membranes were 20.0% and 28.5%, respectively. EEM characterization revealed four fractions of organic matter were presented in the system, namely tyrosine-like, tryptophan-like, humic-like and fulvic-like organic matter. The TiO2-assisted PMR had preferential removal of protein-like dissolved organic matter (DOM) over humic-like substances, as protein-like DOM was preferably oxidized by hydroxyl radicals in the reactor.