Novel PVDF-PEG-CaCO3 Membranes to Achieve the Objectives of the Water Circular Economy by Removing Pharmaceuticals from the Aquatic Environment

Abstract

In the aquatic environment, substances of pharmacological origin are common contaminants. The difficulty of removing them from water is a problem for the implementation of a circular economy policy. When recycling water, an effort should be made to remove, or at least, minimize the presence of these substances in the water. Porous membranes with a new functionality consisting in their adsorption capacity towards pharmaceutical substances have been developed. A Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) membrane with Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) nanoparticles as an adsorbent was prepared. By implementing an integrated filtration-adsorption process using sulphadiazine, as a representative of pharmacological substances, 57 mg/m2 of adsorption capacity has been obtained, which is an improvement in adsorption properties of more than 50 times that of a commercial membrane. At the same time the membrane permeability is 0.29 m3/(h·m2·bar), which means that the membrane’s permeability was improved by 75%.