(672b) Membrane Development From Banana Peel Fibers for Waste Water Treatment At Low Cost

The main objective of this thesis research is to solidify the fact if it is possible to use banana peel fibers to produce low cost membrane capable of water treatment. For this purpose, phase inversion technique is chosen. The main aim is to prepare a membrane that is similar to the membrane used in Spiral Wound RO separators, if possible. Kraft process is to be used for extraction of fibers from banana peel. For this purpose, 10% sodium hydroxide solution is used. The achieved fibers are then washed using distilled water. These fibers are then dried using sunlight. These dried fibers are then used to replace cellulose acetate that is generally used for membrane preparation in phase inversion technique. For phase inversion technique, mixture of extracted fibers, acetone, magnesium perchlorate and water is to be heated to cause partial evaporation of acetone. This partial evaporation causes pores in the membrane. A uniform thickness of membrane is ensured by a boundary around glass plate over which a glass rod is constantly rolled over. This achieved film is then cooled to separate it from glass plate. Then it is dried to achieve a stable membrane.

This experiment is aimed at finding suitable alternates to the present water treatment process. For a lower cost, it is essential to use raw material cheaply available in Bangladesh. The trials for forming the membrane proposed a new system with new composition of the gel mixture for the membrane cast, which is named as the “Cold Binding Method”. Using this method, film with required stability could be produced, though there is a limitation that the membrane tends to shrink after eight hours. This provides both flexibility and stability. The formed membrane has features such as temperature tolerance up to 60^oC, pressure tolerance upto 10 psig, bacterial immunity and color reduction of dye water. The experimental parameter is the weight percentage of fiber. The membrane has been used to filter a waste water sample collected from New Cotton Company of Gajipur, Dhaka. The filtered water was tested for TDS, conductivity and pH for evaluating the membrane filtering behaviour. If more experiments can be performed, hopefully the process can be modified to be used for preparation of reverse osmosis membrane for desalination.