DESIGN AND MODELLING OF WATER FILTRATION ASSEMBLY INCORPORATING GRAPHENE EMBEDDED MEMBRANE

Abstract

This Final Year Project (FYP) report is a theoretical review and design of the latest innovation in water treatment technology. The inclusion of graphene oxide particles in the Polyether Sulfone (PES) hollow fiber membrane is studied and a filtration assembly is designed along with engineering drawings for it, taking into consideration of local conditions. Literature was extensively reviewed, and optimal methodologies were selected after the conduction of costbenefit analysis. Flash Graphene technique is recommended over Improved Hummer's technique due to its fast results and scalability. PES hollow fiber membranes are suitable and have a relatively good performance. Our review showed major performance improvements in the PES membranes after incorporating 0.5% by weight of graphene oxide. These improvements include, but are not limited to improved flux, hydrophilicity, life, bacteriological and viral reductions and less clogging, . Information regarding demand and required output was inputted in the WAVE software by Dupont to model the required membrane characteristics. The surface area was calculated by interpolating data from AMI membranes. The graphene-enhanced membrane assembly was found to provide, in theory, the same amount of water purification performance compared to pure PES membranes all while having a 90% reduced physical size. The assembly was designed on AutoCAD and SolidWorks and includes a sand filter in the first stage, GO-MEM in the second stage, with three valves and operation modes. Backwashing requirement is minimal depending upon feedwater and the optimal lifespan is of two years. This design is theoretical and needs to be replicated in real life to practically test the theoretical performance promised.