A novel electro-Fenton hybrid system for enhancing the interception of volatile organic compounds in membrane distillation desalination
Jun Wang , Hongxin Liu , Kuiling Li , Kunpeng Wang , Zhiyong Wang , Zimou Liu , Sichao Zhu , Dan Qu , Yu Zhang
DOI:10.1016/j.jes.2023.03.039
Received January 16, 2023,Revised , Accepted March 28, 2023, Available online April 07, 2023
Volume 36,2024,Pages 189-199
Membrane distillation (MD) is a promising alternative desalination technology, but the hydrophobic membrane cannot intercept volatile organic compounds (VOCs), resulting in aggravation in the quality of permeate. In term of this, electro-Fenton (EF) was coupled with sweeping gas membrane distillation (SGMD) in a more efficient way to construct an advanced oxidation barrier at the gas-liquid interface, so that the VOCs could be trapped in this layer to guarantee the water quality of the distillate. During the so-called EF-MD process, an interfacial interception barrier containing hydroxyl radical formed on the hydrophobic membrane surface. It contributed to the high phenol rejection of 90.2% with the permeate phenol concentration lower than 1.50 mg/L. Effective interceptions can be achieved in a wide temperature range, even though the permeate flux of phenol was also intensified. The EF-MD system was robust to high salinity and could electrochemically regenerate ferrous ions, which endowed the long-term stability of the system. This novel EF-MD configuration proposed a valuable strategy to intercept VOCs in MD and will broaden the application of MD in hypersaline wastewater treatment.
