Engineered iron/iron oxide functionalized membranes for selenium and other toxic metal removal from power plant scrubber water

The remediation of toxic metals from water with high concentrations of salt has been an emerging area for membrane separation. Cost-effective nanomaterials such as iron and iron oxide nanoparticles have been widely used in reductive and oxidative degradation of toxic organics. Similar procedures can be used for redox transformations of metal species (e.g. metal oxyanions to elemental metal), and/or adsorption of species on iron oxide surface. In this study, iron-functionalized membranes were developed for reduction and adsorption of selenium from coal-fired power plant scrubber water. Iron-functionalized membranes have advantages over iron suspension as the membrane prevents particle aggregation and dissolution. Both lab-scale and full-scale membranes were prepared first by coating polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes with polyacrylic acid (PAA), followed by ion exchange of ferrous ions and subsequent reduction to zero-valent iron nanoparticles. Water permeability of membranes decreased as the percent PAA functionalization increased, and the highest ion exchange capacity (IEC) was obtained at 20% PAA with highly pH responsive pores. Although high concentrations of sulfate and chloride in scrubber water decreased the reaction rate of selenium reduction, this was shown to be overcome by integration of nanofiltration (NF) and iron-functionalized membranes, and selenium concentration below 10µg/L was achieved. [Display omitted] •Correlated the extent of functionalization with membrane transport and responsive behavior.•Successful selenium removal from real scrubber water by integration of nanotechnology and membrane separation.•Synthesized reactive nanoparticles in full-scale membrane module.•Reduced dissolved iron through membrane recapture.