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. 2021 Jun 8;13(12):1907.
doi: 10.3390/polym13121907.

Cigarette Butt Waste as Material for Phase Inverted Membrane Fabrication Used for Oil/Water Emulsion Separation

Aris Doyan  1   2 , Chew Lee Leong  3 , Muhammad Roil Bilad  3   4   5 , Kiki Adi Kurnia  6 , Susilawati Susilawati  1   2 , Saiful Prayogi  4 , Thanitporn Narkkun  7 , Kajornsak Faungnawakij  7
Affiliations

Cigarette Butt Waste as Material for Phase Inverted Membrane Fabrication Used for Oil/Water Emulsion Separation

Aris Doyan et al. Polymers (Basel). .

Abstract

The increasing rate of oil and gas production has contributed to a release of oil/water emulsion or mixtures to the environment, becoming a pressing issue. At the same time, pollution of the toxic cigarette butt has also become a growing concern. This study explored utilization of cigarette butt waste as a source of cellulose acetate-based (CA) polymer to develop a phase inverted membrane for treatment of oil/water emulsion and compare it with commercial polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) and polysulfone (PSF). Results show that the CA-based membrane from waste cigarette butt offers an eco-friendly material without compromising the separation efficiency, with a pore size range suitable for oil/water emulsion filtration with the rejection of >94.0%. The CA membrane poses good structural property similar to the established PVDF and PSF membranes with equally asymmetric morphology. It also poses hydrophilicity properties with a contact angle of 74.5°, lower than both PVDF and PSF membranes. The pore size of CA demonstrates that the CA is within the microfiltration range with a mean flow pore size of 0.17 µm. The developed CA membrane shows a promising oil/water emulsion permeability of 180 L m-2 h-1 bar-1 after five filtration cycles. However, it still suffers a high degree of irreversible fouling (>90.0%), suggesting potential future improvements in terms of membrane fouling management. Overall, this study demonstrates a sustainable approach to addressing oil/water emulsion pollution treated CA membrane from cigarette butt waste.

Keywords: cellulose acetate; cigarette waste; crossflow filtration; membrane fabrication; oily wastewater; phase inversion.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
An illustration of phase inversion method for membrane fabrication applied in the present study.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Surface and cross-section SEM images of the membrane samples.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The pore size distribution of the developed cellulose acetate (CA), polysulfone (PSF), and polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membranes.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The mean pore size distribution of the cellulose acetate (CA), polysulfone (PSF), and polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membranes.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Static contact angle of the developed cellulose acetate (CA), polysulfone (PSF), and polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membranes.
Figure 6
Figure 6
FT-IR spectra of the cellulose acetate membrane.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Clean water permeability of the cellulose acetate (CA), polysulfone (PSF), and polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membranes.
Figure 8
Figure 8
The permeability of the cellulose acetate (CA), polysulfone (PSF), and polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membranes for five cycles in 30 min of oil/water emulsion and 5 min in clean water as a function of filtration time.
Figure 9
Figure 9
The oil rejection of PW filtration using the cellulose acetate (CA), polysulfone (PSF), and polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membranes.
Figure 10
Figure 10
The evolution of membrane fouling in terms of reversible and irreversible fouling.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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