Development and life cycle assessment (LCA) of super-oleophobic (under water) and super-hydrophilic (in-air) mesh membrane for oily water treatment

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 15268 - 11
• Main Authors: Baig, Umair, Shaukat, M. Mobeen, Shuja, S. Z., Asif, M., Khan, Nadeem A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group 03.07.2024; Nature Publishing Group UK; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: Climate change; Coatings; Contact angle; Emission standards; Environmental impact; Environmental impact, Life cycle as-assessment; Fabrication; Impact analysis; Life cycle analysis; Life cycles; Mapping; Membranes; Mesh membrane; Nanoparticles; Oily water; Protective coatings; Stainless steel; Super-hydrophilic surface; Super-oloeophobic underwater; Titania nanoparticles; Water treatment
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-64803-0

Abstract This paper reports the fabrication, characterization, and environmental impact analysis of a super-oleophobic (under water) and super-hydrophilic mesh membrane for oily water treatment. In order to prepare mesh membrane, Titania nanoparticles (NPs) were spray coated on mesh stainless steel followed by calcination at 500 °C. After that, the Titania-coated mesh membrane was characterized using contact angle goniometry (CA), XRD, FE-SEM, EDX and elemental mapping. The FE-SEM, EDX, elemental mapping and XRD results confirmed that the Titania NPs were successfully coated on the surface of mesh membrane. CA results demonstrated that the prepared mesh membrane is super-hydrophilic and super-oleo phobic under water conditions, making it suitable for oil/water separation. Subsequently, life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to determine the environmental impacts of Titania NPs-coated mesh membrane fabrication process. LCA results indicate that electricity and nitrogen contributed the most toward the eighteen environmental impact categories considered for this study.