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Recent developments in membrane technology for the elimination of ammonia from wastewater: A review

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Abstract

This review article presents an extensive study on ammonia elimination from wastewater through membrane separation technology. The mechanism, performance and morphology of different types of membranes that have been employed for ammonia removal from wastewater such as hollow fiber membrane contactor, membrane distillation contactor and flat sheet membranes including blend, and mixed matrix membranes were analyzed. The impact of various variables, for example feed solution pH, concentration of ammonia in the feed solution, operation temperature, membrane thickness, the feed velocity and striping phase velocity on ammonia removal performance of membranes, was evaluated. To summarize the experimental studies, the best performance of membranes reported in the articles was compared and the future perspective of ammonia removal by membrane technology was reported.

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Abbreviations

A :

Operative filtration area

AGMD:

Air gap membrane distillation

CA:

Cellulose acetate

C A,0 :

Initial concentration of ammonia in the feed phase

C A,f :

Concentration of ammonia in the feed solution

CA,s :

Concentration of ammonia in the stripping phase

DCMD:

Direct contact membrane distillation

DE:

Partition coefficient efficiency

DMAc:

N,N-dimethylacetamide

E :

Removal efficiency

J w :

Flux of permeate solution

K a :

Ammonia mass transfer coefficient

KOE:

Mass transfer coefficient

MA:

Membrane absorption

NMP:

N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone

PP:

Polypropylene

PSf:

Polysulfone

PTFE:

Polytetrafluoroethylene

PVDF:

Polyvinylidene fluoride

Q :

Volume of collected permeate sample

SEM:

Scanning electron microscopy

SGMD:

Sweeping gas membrane distillation

TAN:

Total ammonia nitrogen

VMD:

Vacuum membrane distillation

ΔT:

Sampling duration

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  1. Laboratory Center, Xiamen University Malaysia, Jalan Sunsuria, 43900, Bandar Sunsuria, Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia

    P. Moradihamedani

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Moradihamedani, P. Recent developments in membrane technology for the elimination of ammonia from wastewater: A review. Polym. Bull. 78, 5399–5425 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-020-03386-y

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