Performance Comparison of Hollow Fiber Membrane Contactors for Liquid-Liquid Extraction of Penicillin-G from Wastewater

Pharmaceutical waste is one of the considerable problems of the environment. Membrane contactors are used to treat various of wastewater. This study compared the effectiveness of polyvinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-HFP) and polysulfone (PSF) membrane contactors in separating antibiotics from pharmaceutical wastewater. For this purpose, PVDF-HFP hollow fiber membranes were prepared using the non-solvent phase separation (NIPS) method. Hollow fiber membranes were characterized. Penicillin G was extracted from pharmaceutical wastewater with a liquid-liquid membrane contacting system. Optimizing the operational variables of penicillin G extraction was done using the response surface method. The results showed that the PVDF-HFP membrane has an open structure with large finger-like cavities, fragile outer skin, and an inner skinless layer. This membrane has an average surface pore size, total porosity, and water contact angle of 0.04 µm, 84%, and 94°, respectively. PVDF-HFP membrane showed the maximum penicillin G extraction flux of 1.54 × 10-3 kg/m2s in the optimal operating conditions of aqueous phase flow rate of 51 ml/min and organic phase flow rate of 144 ml/min. By comparing the characteristics and using the response surface method, it was determined that the PVDF-HFP membrane contactor has a higher extraction flux than PSF in separating penicillin G from pharmaceutical wastewater.