Application of Photocatalytic Metal Membrane System for Water Purification

This study was conducted to evaluate the applicability of photocatalytic metal membrane system for the treatment of humic acid and heavy metals in aqueous solution. The catalysts, TiO2 powder P25 Degussa and metal membrane with 0.5 μm nominal pore size were used for experiments. Removal efficiency of humic acid and heavy metals increased with the increase of TiO2 dosage, however decreased over 0.3 g/L of TiO2 dosage. The addition of H2O2 as an oxidation reagent had a positive effect for the removal rate of humic acid and heavy metals. Metal membrane with stainless steel seemed to be quite stable to UV light with oxidation reagent in long-term operational periods over 6 months. Moreover, TiO2 particles can be effectively separated from the treated water by membrane rejection and the permeation flux was also enhanced by the combination of photocatalytic reaction.