The Influence of Water Matrix On The Separation of Bisphenol A With Low And High Pressure Driven Membrane Techniques

The unrestricted access to clean and inexpensive water is perceived as one of the most basic humanitarian objectives; however, it still remains a challenge in 21^st century due to many factors such as constantly increasing pollution of surface water. One of the remedies for this situation might be so called in-depth municipal waste water treatment. The objective of this paper was to examine the efficacy of the pressure-driven membrane filtration (ultra- and nanofiltration) to remove bisphenol A from a variety of environmental matrices including real effluent from municipal wastewater treatment plants. The process of pressure-driven membrane filtration was realized through dead-end flow filtration with the use of different commercial membranes. It has been proved that bisphenol A retention coefficient depended both on the process type and the physical and chemical properties of the membrane applied. The type of water matrix was also significant. It has been determined that efficient bisphenol A removal is possible only in the process of nanofiltration. However, in this case the selection of an appropriate membrane is of a great importance because of the physical and chemical parameters that determine both separation properties and the intensity of adverse reactions that accompany pressure-driven filtration processes.