Cellulose-supported Silica-based Monolithic Membranes: Fabrication, Characterization and Optimization for Tap-water Desalination

Background: The Gaza Strip is faced with a conundrum of high ground-water salinity. This salty water damages home appliances and impairs household RO desalination-units. Methods: Silica-based monolithic-membranes were fabricated by embedding cellulose filter paper in silica-based monolithic membranes and the polymerization was triggered by hydrochloric or citric acids. Results: Twenty-eight membranes were produced utilizing various fabrication recipes and membrane sizes. The membranes performance was evaluated for input tap-water of TDS that ranged between 500 to 5000 ppm and various experimental setups were investigated. Furthermore, membranes porosity was studied by nitrogen sorption-desorption isotherms (BET). Hence, dissimilar desalination efficiency of 5.1 and 12.9 % was concluded for membranes prepared using hydrochloric and citric acid as initiators, respectively. Moreover, the highest desalination membrane performance was noticed for input tap-water of TDS ranging between 2000 and 3000 mg/L. Sequential tap-water desalination using four identical membranes in the raw enhanced salt removal to 31.6 %. Conclusion: Thus, this cost-effective silica-based membrane is of high potential for use as disposable prefilter unit to alleviate the salinity of input water into household RO units or other home appliances such as washing machine or dishwasher.