Hybrid treatment of coagulation/flocculation process followed by ultrafiltration in TIO2-modified membranes to improve the removal of reactive black 5 dye.

Many efforts have been made to minimize the polluting effect of wastewater containing dyes that are potentially toxic to the environment. The association of the coagulation/flocculation (CF) process, using saline extract of Moringa oleifera Lam (MO) seeds and subsequently ultrafiltration (UF) in TiO2-modified membranes was performed to remove reactive black 5 dye (10 ppm, RB5) from aqueous solution. The efficiency of the hybrid process was measured by the removal of the dye concentration, apparent color and fouling parameters. The membranes were successfully modified as supported by characterization methods of SEM, FTIR-ATR and WCA. The efficiency of the processes, when applied separately was low. However, after CF and subsequently the filtration in a TiO2-modified membrane both parameters assessed (dye concentration, apparent color) reached 100% of the removal rate. The modified membranes substantially improved permeate fluxes, for instance, after CF the dye flux for modified membrane enhanced around 49% compared with the flux in the pristine membrane. According to these results, the combination of methods was able to effectively remove RB5 dye, in addition to improving permeate fluxes and keeping fouling at low levels.