Integrated Treatment of Mining Dam Wastewater with Quaternized Chitosan and PAN/HPMC/AgNo3 Nanostructured Hydrophylic Membranes

Abstract

This study was developed a novel nanostructured membrane by electrospinning process, from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) modify by hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) polymers containing silver nitrite (AgNO3), to be used as a filter in an integrated wastewater dam treatment process to reuse it as drinking water. Different formulations (108 samples) were electrospun from PAN and (0, 5, 10 w%) HPMC and (0, 0.5, 1 w%) solutions to selected a more efficient formulation in water disinfection and higher hydrophilic character of the membrane to flow performance in the wastewater treatment. The PAN and HPMC phases in membranes were characterize by infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. The nanostructured membranes were characterized by Scanning electron microscopy and the fibers had a diameter between 251 ± 58 and 306 ± 49 nm. The presence of HPMC and AgNO3 in membrane formulation endows superhydrophilicity and permeability increase which up to 21,151 ± 445 L⋅m−2 Permeability h−1. After filtration process with PAN/HPMC/AgNO3, all the tested water potability indexes were achieved. The primary treatment, using quaternized chitosan reduced the turbidity parameter from 19,000 Nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) to 14 NTU, and after filtration with nanostructured membrane, to levels was below 1 NTU and pathogenic potential removed (Total Coliform and Escherichia coli). The results of this study indicated that the hydrophilic nanostructured membranes PAN/10% HPMC/1% AgNO3 have adequate properties to potential wastewater treatment mining for reuse. It’s give a sustainable strategy for managing wastewater which should be reduce the volume of water in the tailing’s dams and contributes to increasing the stability of dams and reducing risks with catastrophic environmental impact.