University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Novel covalent organic framework (COF) thin-film composite nanofiltration membrane for effective removal of organic compounds from petroleum produced water

Ni, Weiqi

Content Files
NI-THESIS-2020.pdf

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/109640

Description

Title
Novel covalent organic framework (COF) thin-film composite nanofiltration membrane for effective removal of organic compounds from petroleum produced water
Author(s)
Ni, Weiqi
Issue Date
2020-12-10
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Marinas, Benito Jose
Department of Study
Civil & Environmental Eng
Discipline
Environ Engr in Civil Engr
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.S.
Degree Level
Thesis
Date of Ingest
2021-03-05T21:47:35Z
Keyword(s)
  • Membrane Separation
  • Nanofiltration
  • Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs)
  • Petroleum Produced Water
  • Rejection Performance Model
Abstract
Petroleum-produced water is the co-produced aqueous liquid phase along with the oil and/or gas phases during petroleum production operations. It’s considered the largest waste stream associated with oil and gas extraction. The treatment and further reuse of produced water are essential to address environmental protection and global water scarcity challenges. Although there are adequate technologies to remove the bulk of organic matter in produced water, the removal of small organic matter remains a challenge. A novel thin-film composite nanofiltration membrane with an active layer made with a covalent organic framework (COF) developed in the early phases of this study was used to investigate its rejection capability for organic model compounds present in treated produced water. Permeation experiments with the COF membrane resulted in 60-70% rejection for three model compounds, Propyl-, Butyl- and Pentyl-benzoic acids, along with 85-90% rejection of the higher-molecular weight organic surrogate, Rhodamine-WT (R-WT), and less than 10% rejection of model inorganic salt, NaCl. The solution-diffusion model was used to determine the permeation parameters for model compounds. The model revealed that a significant portion of the overall permeation was due to advection through imperfections. The model was applied to demonstrate that further refinement of the COF membranes focusing on eliminating the imperfections would result in the model compound rejection increasing to 90-95%.
Graduation Semester
2020-12
Type of Resource
Thesis
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109640
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2020 Weiqi Ni

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Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois PRIMARY
Graduate Theses and Dissertations at Illinois
Dissertations and Theses - Civil and Environmental Engineering