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Review
. 2022 Aug 18;12(8):798.
doi: 10.3390/membranes12080798.

Adsorptive Membrane for Boron Removal: Challenges and Future Prospects

Shaymala Mehanathan  1 , Juhana Jaafar  1 , Atikah Mohd Nasir  2 , Roshanida A Rahman  3 , Ahmad Fauzi Ismail  1 , Rosli Md Illias  3 , Mohd Hafiz Dzarfan Othman  1 , Mukhlis A Rahman  1 , Muhammad Roil Bilad  4 , Muhammad Nihal Naseer  5
Affiliations
Review

Adsorptive Membrane for Boron Removal: Challenges and Future Prospects

Shaymala Mehanathan et al. Membranes (Basel). .

Abstract

The complexity of removing boron compounds from aqueous systems has received serious attention among researchers and inventors in the water treating industry. This is due to the higher level of boron in the aquatic ecosystem, which is caused by the geochemical background and anthropogenic factors. The gradual increase in the distribution of boron for years can become extremely toxic to humans, terrestrial organisms and aquatic organisms. Numerous methods of removing boron that have been executed so far can be classified under batch adsorption, membrane-based processes and hybrid techniques. Conventional water treatments such as coagulation, sedimentation and filtration do not significantly remove boron, and special methods would have to be installed in order to remove boron from water resources. The blockage of membrane pores by pollutants in the available membrane technologies not only decreases their performance but can make the membranes prone to fouling. Therefore, the surface-modifying flexibility in adsorptive membranes can serve as an advantage to remove boron from water resources efficiently. These membranes are attractive because of the dual advantage of adsorption/filtration mechanisms. Hence, this review is devoted to discussing the capabilities of an adsorptive membrane in removing boron. This study will mainly highlight the issues of commercially available adsorptive membranes and the drawbacks of adsorbents incorporated in single-layered adsorptive membranes. The idea of layering adsorbents to form a highly adsorptive dual-layered membrane for boron removal will be proposed. The future prospects of boron removal in terms of the progress and utilization of adsorptive membranes along with recommendations for improving the techniques will also be discussed further.

Keywords: adsorptive membrane; boron; dual-layered membrane; surface modification; water treatment.

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Conflict of interest statement

The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses or interpretation of the data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The evolution of post-treatment technology in removing boron [14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22].
Figure 2
Figure 2
The progress of standards permitted for boron in drinking water [25].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Structure of boric acid with hydrogen bonding.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Existence of boron at different pH values. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [32], 2014, Elselvier.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Summary on various sources and their respective processes accounting for boron concentration in the environment.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Overall illustration about capturing boron using an adsorptive membrane.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Possible binding mechanism of boric acid and adsorbent with -OH functional groups.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Illustration of the view of the structure after the complexation reaction.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Possible rejection of boron from water through an adsorptive membrane.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Positioning of adsorbents in the polymer matrix [118]. (a) Adsorbents incorporated into the pores of membrane. (b) Adsorbents incorporated into the membrane matrix. (c) Adsorbents incorporated associated with surface grafting. (d) Adsorbents incorporated at the top surface of membrane. (e) Adsorbents incorporated by grafting onto membrane surface. (f) Adsorbents incorporated by assembling of layers.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Different coating techniques to form adsorptive membranes.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Illustration of the co-casting technique.
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