Polymer membranes often face challenges of oil fouling and rapid water flux decline during the separation of oil-in-water emulsions, making them a focal point of ongoing research and development efforts. Coating PVDF membranes with a hydrogel layer equips the developed membranes with robust potential to mitigate oil fouling. However, developing a controllable thickness of a stable hydrogel layer to prevent the blocking of membrane pores remains a critical issue. In this work, atmospheric pressure low-temperature plasma was used to prepare the surface of a PVDF membrane to improve its wettability and adhesion properties for coating with a thin hydrophilic film of an AM-NaA copolymer hydrogel. The AM-NaA/PVDF membrane exhibited superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic properties, along with exceptional anti-crude oil-fouling characteristics and a self-cleaning function. The AM-NaA/PVDF membrane achieved high separation efficiency, exceeding 99% for various oil-in-water emulsions, with residual oil content in the permeate of less than 10 mg/L after a single-step separation. Additionally, it showed a high-water flux of 5874 L/m2·h for crude oil-in-water emulsions. The AM-NaA/PVDF membrane showed good stability and easy cleaning by water washing over multiple crude oil-in-water emulsion separation and regeneration cycles. Adding CaCl2 destabilized emulsions by promoting oil droplet coalescence, further boosting flux. This strategy provides a practical pathway for the development of highly reusable and oil-fouling-resistant membranes for the efficient separation of emulsified oily water.
Trickle irrigation is one of the most conservative irrigation techniques since it implies supplying water directly on the soil through emitters. Emitters dissipate energy of water at the end of the trickle irrigation system and provide water at emission points. The area wetted by an emitter depends upon the discharge of emitter, soil texture, initial soil water content, and soil permeability. The objectives of this research were to predict water distribution profiles through different soils for different conditions and quantify the distribution profiles in terms of main characteristics of soil and emitter. The wetting patterns were simulated at the end of each hour for a total time of application of 12 hrs, emitter disch
... Show MoreReverse Osmosis (RO) has already proved its worth as an efficient treatment method in chemical and environmental engineering applications. Various successful RO attempts for the rejection of organic and highly toxic pollutants from wastewater can be found in the literature over the last decade. Dimethylphenol is classified as a high-toxic organic compound found ubiquitously in wastewater. It poses a real threat to humans and the environment even at low concentration. In this paper, a model based framework was developed for the simulation and optimisation of RO process for the removal of dimethylphenol from wastewater. We incorporated our earlier developed and validated process model into the Species Conserving Genetic Algorithm (SCG
... Show MoreClean energy applications widely recognize Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) for their high efficiency and environmental compatibility. Accurate parameter identification of PEMFC models is essential for enhancing system performance and reliability, particularly under dynamic operating conditions. This paper presents a novel optimization-based approach called Heterogeneous Comprehensive Learning-Bald Eagle Search (HCLBES) with enhanced exploration and exploitation capabilities for the effective modeling of PEMFC. The algorithm combines the exploration strength of the Bald Eagle Search with comprehensive learning and heterogeneity mechanisms to achieve a balanced global and local search space. In this algorithm, the number
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