Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 19(5) 863869 (2011)

Ultrafiltration Enhanced with Activated Carbon Adsorption

for Efficient Dye Removal from Aqueous Solution*

DONG Yanan (), SU Yanlei (), CHEN Wenjuan (), PENG Jinming (),
ZHANG Yan () and JIANG Zhongyi ()**
Key Laboratory for Green Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology,
Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China

Abstract In this study, orange G dye was efficiently removed from aqueous solution by ultrafiltration (UF) mem-
brane separation enhanced with activated carbon adsorption. The powdered activated carbon (PAC) was deposited
onto the UF membrane surface, forming an intact filter cake. The enhanced UF process simultaneously exploited
the high water permeation flux of porous membrane and the high adsorption ability of PAC toward dye molecules.
The influencing factors on the dye removal were investigated. The results indicated that with sufficient PAC incor-
poration, the formation of intact PAC filtration cake led to nearly complete rejection for dye solution under opti-
mized dye concentration and operation pressure, without large sacrificing the permeation flux of the filtration process.
Typically, the dye rejection ratio increased from 43.6% for single UF without adsorption to nearly 100% for the en-
hanced UF process, achieving long time continuous treatment with water permeation flux of 47 Lm2h1. The pre-
sent study demonstrated that adsorption enhanced UF may be a feasible method for the dye wastewater treatment.
Keywords enhanced ultrafiltration, powdered activated carbon, filter cake, adsorption, dye removal

1 INTRODUCTION range of 200-1000 Da, most of the dyes can be effec-

A large amount of dye effluents is generated
every day in textile, paper, carpet, leather, plastics and
printing industries. The highly colored dye solution
discharged to the environment is aesthetically unde-
sirable and would cause damage to the ecosystem
since dyes would hinder light transmission and disturb
biological processes in water. Some dyes are toxic and
harmful to aquatic living creatures, even highly car-
cinogenic to human health. Besides, most dyestuffs in
wastewater are non-biodegradable due to their strong
resistance toward light, pH and microbial degradation.
Hence, it is desired to effectively remove dyes from
wastewater before discharge [1-6].
Increasingly, extensive ecological and environ-
mental concerns trigger numerous research efforts on
the efficient disposal of dye effluents. Conventional
dye removal technologies could be categorized into
physical, chemical, and biological methods. Com-
pared with chemical and biological technologies, such
as chemical coagulation and oxidation, photo-catalysis
oxidation, biological oxidation etc. [4-7], membrane
filtration typically including pressure-driven nanofil-
tration (NF) and ultrafiltration (UF), emerges as a
promising physical treatment method for separating,
concentrating and purifying dye solution because of
the distinct advantages such as facile and green opera-
tion, high efficiency and low cost. NF process was
first introduced into dye wastewater treatment in
1990s and has been proven to be an acceptable separa-
tion technique [8]. Since the molecular mass cut-off
(MMCO) of pore sizes of NF membranes are in the
tively rejected and the permeated water is nearly col-
orless [9]. However, a considerable high operation
pressure is usually requisite to achieve high NF per-
meation flux, which is doubtlessly adverse for energy
conservation; moreover, serious flux decline due to
membrane fouling also limits the application of NF
[10, 11]. UF process promotes the separation of mole-
cules in solution based on size at a relative low pres-
sure (0.04-1 MPa), consuming relatively less energy
compared with NF process [12]. However, removal of
small molecule compounds and some dissolved con-
taminants (for example, dyes) cannot be accomplished
by single UF process due to the relatively larger pore
size. UF enhanced with other conventional technolo-
gies such as adsorption, coagulation, have been proved
to be efficient approaches for further optimizing the
separation performance of UF process [13, 14]. It
should be mentioned that adsorption has been more
extensively used to remove pollutants from wastewa-
ter compared with the coagulation method due to its
high efficiency and economic feasibility [15].
The common operation mode for the UF process
enhanced by adsorption is that adsorption and UF
process operate separately in two different devices, and
in most cases, adsorption acts as the pre-treatment step
for UF process [16]. Another operation mode is that
adsorption and UF process operate in one device, which
would simultaneously exploit the advantages of high
permeation flux of UF and high removal efficiency of
adsorption. Moreover, it was reported that the addition
of activated carbon would reduce membrane fouling
and prolong the lifetime of UF membrane [7, 17].

Received 2011-06-28, accepted 2011-08-26.

* Supported by Drug Separation and Purification Project in Programme for Development of Novel Drug (2009ZX09301-008),
the Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (B06006), and State Key Laboratory of Precision Measuring
Technology and Instruments (Tianjin University).
** To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: zhyjiang@tju.edu.cn
864 Chin. J. Chem. Eng., Vol. 19, No. 5, October 2011
In the present paper, dye (orange G as model
system) was efficiently removed from aqueous solu-
tion by UF membrane separation enhanced with acti-
vated carbon adsorption. The UF process was operated
in dead-end model, meanwhile, the powdered acti-
vated carbon (PAC) was deposited onto the membrane
surface forming an intact filter cake or mini-fixed-bed
column. The objective of the present study was to
evaluate the dye removal efficiency of the enhanced
UF process. Furthermore, the influences of PAC add-
ing amount, initial dye concentration and operation
pressure on membrane performance were investigated.
2 EXPERIMENTAL
2.1 Materials
Polyethersulfone (PES) flakes (category no.
6020P) was purchased from BASF Co. (Germany)
and dried at 110 C for 12 h before use. Orange G was
purchased from Dingguo Biological Technology Co.
(Beijing, China). The molecule structures of PES and
orange G were showed in Fig. 1. Poly(ethylene glycol)
(PEG) (Mw = 2000), powdered activated carbon (PAC),
and N,N-dimethyl formamide (DMF) were purchased
from Kewei Chemical Reagent Co. (Tianjin, China).
Other reagents used in the experiments were all of
analytical grade. The feed solution was prepared by
dissolving 40 mg orange G into 1 L deionized water
and fully agitated before use.
(a) Polyethersulfone
(b) Orange G
Figure 1 Molecular structures of polyethersulfone (a) and
orange G (b)
2.2 Membrane preparation
The detailed preparation procedure of PES/PEG
membrane can be found in our previous study [18].
First, 3.6 g PES and 1.8 g PEG [50% (by mass) of
PES] were dissolved in 14.6 g DMF to form mem-
brane casting solutions. The casting solutions were
stirred for 4 h at 60 C and then left for about 6 h to
allow complete release of bubbles. Consequently, the
casting solutions were cast on a glass plate to form a
thin film and immediately immersed in water coagula-
tion bath. After solidifying for 2-3 min, the mem-
branes with a wet thickness of about 240 m and a
membrane area of about 210 cm2 would peel off from
the glass plate. The resultant membranes were dipped
into deionized water for at least 24 h to remove resid-
ual DMF. The membranes were soaked in deionized
water prior to utilization.
2.3 Characterization of the membrane and PAC
Environment scanning electron microscope
(ESEM, Philips 171 XL30E) was utilized to investi-
gate the cross-sectional morphology of the membrane
and the particle size distribution of PAC. The pore size
distribution of the PAC was measured in a Micromer-
itics TriStar system based on the Brunauer-Emmett-
Teller (BET) method of N2 adsorption/desorption iso-
therm at 77 K. The dye concentration in the solution
was detected by UV-vis spectrophotometer (Hitach
UV-2800, Japan) at 485 nm for maximized absorbance.
In the adsorption kinetics experiments, 200 mg
PAC was continuously agitated in 800 ml of 40
mgL1 orange G solution at constant room tempera-
ture (251 C). The results of the adsorption kinetics
were determined by comparing the residual concentra-
tion in the sample solution with initial concentration,
from which the uptake of dye could be calculated at
different time intervals. The amount of dye adsorbed,
Qe [mgg1 (based on PAC)] was calculated by
Qe = V (C0 Ce ) / w (1)
1
where C0 and Ce (mgL ) were the initial and equilib-
rium dye concentrations in the aqueous solution, V
was the volume of solution (L) and w was the PAC
adding amount (g) [19].
The adsorption isotherm was obtained by meas-
uring the uptake amount of dye as a function of dye
concentration at equilibrium. Constant volume (100
ml) of the sample solution at different concentration
(20-200 mgL1) was blended with 50 mg PAC. When
the adsorption reached equilibrium (generally within
20 min), the residual concentration of the dye solu-
tions was detected and the dye amount absorbed was
calculated accordingly.
2.4 Adsorption-enhanced UF experiments
The lab-scale experimental equipment of the UF
process enhanced with PAC filter cake adsorption was
similar to that in our previous work [18]. The UF sys-
tem consisted of N2 gas cylinder, feed solution reser-
voir, Millipore UF cup (Model 8400, Millipore Co.,
USA, working volume of 400 ml, effective membrane
area of 45.8 cm2) and permeate effluent reservoir. PAC
was added directly in the UF cup (Fig. 2) with a
near-surface agitation (200 rmin1). During the UF,
part of the PAC particles were anticipated to deposit
 Chin. J. Chem. Eng., Vol. 19, No. 5, October 2011 865

of orange G in the permeate effluent and feed solution,

respectively.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Morphologies of the membrane and adsorbent

The cross-sectional morphology of the membrane

Figure 2 Experimental equipment of UF process en- is shown in Fig. 3 (a), which indicates a typical
hanced with PAC adsorption
1N2 gas cylinder; 2pressure line; 3feed solution reser-
voir; 4UF cell; 5magnetic stirrer; 6permeate effluent
reservoir; 7balance

on the membrane surface and form filter cake under

the constant operation pressure, the other part may be
homogenously suspended in the filtration cell due to
the near-surface stirring. The feed solution reservoir
was filled with the inlet dye solution for avoiding obvi-
ous decrease of dye concentration in the filtration cell.
The performance of the UF process enhanced (a) PES UF membrane
with adsorption was characterized by two parameters,
permeation flux and rejection ratio. The permeation
flux was designated as J (Lm2h1) and calculated by
V
J= (2)
At
where V (L) was the volume of permeate effluent, A
(m2) was the membrane area and t (h) was the per-
meation time. And the rejection ratio (R) defined as
follows:
C
R = 1 P 100% (3) (b) PAC particles
Cf
Figure 3 SEM photographs of PES UF membrane (a)
where Cp and Cf (mgL1) denoted the concentrations and PAC (b)

Figure 4 N2 adsorption-desorption isotherm and the pore size distribution of PAC BET surface area: 585 m2g1
adsorption; desorption
866 Chin. J. Chem. Eng., Vol. 19, No. 5, October 2011
asymmetric structure consisting of a compact skin
layer, a porous sub-layer and fully developed support-
ing layer from top to bottom. Fig. 3 (b) shows the
morphologies of PAC particles. The PAC exhibit
irregular shape and the average size spanned from 2 to
10 m. N2 adsorption-desorption isotherm and pore
distribution of PAC are investigated by BET (N2) as
shown in Fig. 4. The existence of hysteresis loop
indicates that the mesoporous structure of PAC with
an average size around 3.8 nm and specific area of
585 m2g1.
3.2 Adsorption kinetics and isotherm of PAC
In our study, batch adsorption experiment is car-
ried out to investigate the adsorption kinetics and iso-
therm of PAC. As shown in Fig. 5, the amount of ad-
sorbed dye was increased rapidly in the initial 20 min
and then gradually leveled off with the maximum ad-
sorption value of about 133 mgg1. Since the adsorp-
tion amount of PAC is not substantially changed, 20
min is taken as the equilibrium adsorption time in our
subsequent study. Adsorption isotherm in Fig. 6 (Qe
versus Ce) presents the uptake amount of dye on PAC
as a function of dye aqueous equilibrium concentra-
tion. With an initial concavity to the concentration
Figure 5 Amount of adsorbed dye onto PAC as a function
of operation time [The original dye concentration in the feed
solution was 40 mgL1 and the equilibrium dye concentration
was 3 mgL1, the operation temperature was (251) C]
Figure 6 Adsorption isotherm of the orange G onto PAC
[The PAC adding amount was 50 mg and the operation tem-
perature was (251) C]
axis, the profile shows a typical Langmuir-type ad-
sorption isotherm [19]. It is obvious that the adsorption
capacity of PAC increases with dye concentration at
equilibrium (Ce, mgL1) and the adsorption of dye
molecules is thus highly concentration dependent [20].
3.3 Effect of parameters on permeation flux and
rejection ratio
3.3.1 Effect of PAC adding amount on permeation flux
Due to its excellent temperature, pH stability and
mechanical strength, the negatively charged PES UF
membranes are often utilized to adsorb positively
charged dye molecules via the electrostatic attractive
interaction [5]. However, in this study, since the size of
dye molecules is smaller compared with the average
pore size of UF membrane, a large proportion of mole-
cules could permeate the membrane [21, 22]. Therefore,
the UF process enhanced with PAC adsorption is em-
ployed to achieve the efficient dye rejection, and the
results demonstrate that as the PAC particles are com-
pletely retained by the membrane, dye molecules
could be readily and completely removed. To fully
evaluate the performance of this enhanced UF process,
the influences of PAC adding amount, initial dye con-
centration and operation pressure are investigated.
As shown in Fig. 7, under a constant operation
pressure of 0.1 MPa, the UF permeation flux is gradu-
ally decreased from 65 Lm2h1 to a pseudo-constant
value of about 47 Lm2h1 as the PAC adding amount
is increased from 0 to 160 mg and varies slightly as
the PAC adding amount is further increased. It is pro-
posed that PAC in the feed would deposit or adsorb on
the membrane surface, forming a PAC filter cake layer
and consequently causing a drop of the permeation
flux [23]. In the stirred cell, the shear force from the
stirrer may actually sweep some PAC away from the
membrane surface. When the PAC adding amount is
arrived at 160 mg, the deposition and sweeping of
PAC may reach equilibrium [24], so that an intact PAC
filter cake layer is formed. As the PAC adding amount
is further increased, the formation of the filter cake is
fully completed and the thickness keeps at a constant
value. Similar phenomenon is also reported by other
Figure 7 The influence of the PAC adding amount on the
permeation flux at pressure of 0.1 MPa, and temperature
of (251) C
 Chin. J. Chem. Eng., Vol. 19, No. 5, October 2011
research [24]. Fig. 8 presents the photograph of PAC
filter cake formed on the membrane surface. The
thickness of the as-formed cake layer is about 87 m
and corresponding resistance is about 7.61012 m1.
Figure 8 Image of PAC cake layer on membrane surface
at pressure of 0.1 MPa, and temperature of (251) C
3.3.2 Effect of initial dye concentration
The adsorption of dye is highly concentration
dependent, due to the fact that the initial dye concen-
tration would provide an important driving force to
promote mass transfer of the dye molecules from
aqueous solution onto adsorbents. Hence, initial dye
concentration is adjusted from 2 to 50 mgL1 and the
corresponding influence on the performance of the UF
process enhanced with PAC adsorption is investigated
(as shown in Fig. 9). The rejection ratio is ascended
with the decrease of initial dye concentration. From
the adsorption kinetics of PAC, it is obvious that the
adsorption rate is increased in the first 20 min. For the
dye concentration of 5-25 mgL1, the complete re-
moval is achieved in the initial 20 min, which is
agreeable with quick uptake in adsorption kinetics.
The initial relative low dye rejection ratio would be
attributed to that the adsorption active sites of the
membrane are insufficient and the intact PAC cake
layer on membrane surface could not be formed.
When the initial dye concentrations are 40 and 50
mgL1, the highest removal only reaches 72.5% due
to insufficient adsorption sites for PAC filter cake.
Figure 9 Dye rejection ratio as a function of filtration time
at different dye concentration inlet
dye concentration inlet/mgL1: 50; 40; 25; 15; 5
867
Under the enhancement of PAC adsorption, the
permeate solution is continuously received from the
UF process. However, the adsorption ability of PAC is
limited at constant dosage; there comes the break-
through point which is defined as when the adsorbate
solution passes through adsorption column, permeate
effluent concentration starts rising with time after a
certain period [16]. The breakthrough point at 50%
(Cp/Cf = 0.5) is the intersection of the 50% horizontal
line with the rejection curves as showed in Fig. 9.
Based on 50% breakthrough point, it is clear that the
treated volume increases with the decrease of the ini-
tial dye concentration. Theoretically, convective flow
is more favorable for rapid mass transfer compared
with free diffusion. In column adsorption, mass trans-
fer velocity is limited by diffusion, while in the UF
enhanced with PAC adsorption process, convection is
the main flow mode and the mass transfer resistance
could be decreased substantially. The convective flow
in the UF enhanced with PAC adsorption process may
overcome that problem with rapid adsorption and
separation [5].
3.3.3 Effect of PAC adding amount on rejection ratio
The rejection ratio is substantially affected by the
PAC adding amount in the PAC adsorption enhanced
UF process. In our experiments, the flat sheet mem-
brane is utilized to separate the PAC particles and
permeate solution. The cake layer formed by the
deposition of PAC particles acts as a mini PAC ad-
sorption column. When dye solution passes through
the PAC cake layer, the rapid attachment of dye
molecules onto PAC particles ensures the high removal
ratio of dye molecules [14, 25]. The effect of PAC ad-
dition on dye removal is verified by varying PAC
adding amount while fixing the operation pressure at
0.1 MPa and the dye concentration at 40 mgL1. As
illustrated in Fig. 10, the PES pristine membrane
(without incorporation of PAC) exhibits about 40%
dye rejection ratio in the initial 60 min, which is at-
tributed to the instinct electrostatic repulsion and ad-
sorption ability of the membrane matrix [5]. Further-
more, the rejection is remarkably decreased after 60
min. As shown in Fig. 10, the incorporation of PAC
Figure 10 Dye rejection ratio as a function of filtration
time at different PAC adding amount
PAC adding amount/mg: 80; 120; 160; 200; 240;
320; 400; 0
868 Chin. J. Chem. Eng., Vol. 19, No. 5, October 2011
obviously favors the enhancement of the dye rejection.
The dye rejection shows a gradually increase trend
with the increase of PAC adding amount. Especially,
when the PAC adding amount is 400 mg, the rejection
ratio keeps at nearly 100% within 170 min. The varia-
tion in the rejection ratio can be interpreted by the
availability of active sites on PAC particles and the
intact formation of the PAC cake layer. The desired
rejection ratio could be received by readily adjusting
the PAC adding amount.
For providing a better insight into the relation-
ship between intrinsic adsorption property of PAC and
the separation performance of the enhanced UF proc-
ess, the relationship of PAC adding amount and
breakthrough point is analyzed. Based on Fig. 10, a
linear relationship of the breakthrough time t0.97 (at
97% or Cp/Cf = 0.97) with PAC adding amount is pre-
sented in Fig. 11. Values of the intercept and slope
calculated from the linear plots are 81.03 and 0.64,
respectively. The correlation coefficient (R2) for the
straight line is 0.976. Fig. 11 may be used to estimate
the PAC adding amount needed for a certain operation
time with the rejection above 97%.
Figure 11 Operation time for 97% rejection ratio at differ-
ent PAC adding amount (The concentration of dye is 40 mgL1)
3.3.4 Effect of operation pressure
Since UF is a pressure-driven process, the opera-
tion pressure will exert significant influence on the
separation performance of UF enhanced with PAC
adsorption process. The effect of operation pressure
on the rejection ratio of dye is presented in Fig. 12
Figure 12 Dye rejection ratio as a function of filtration
time at different operation pressure
operation pressure/MPa: 0.05; 0.10; 0.15
with a feed dye concentration of 40 mgL1 and a PAC
adding amount of 160 mg. At the initial stage of filtra-
tion when the pressure is 0.05 and 0.10 MPa, com-
plete dye removal (rejection ratio is 100%) is observed
and ranges from 0 to 83 min and to 43 min, respec-
tively. At higher pressure, the last time of complete
rejection is shortened. Pressure is the driving force in
the process, and the increase of pressure would drive
more dye solution into the cell. Simultaneously, the
increase of pressure also drives more PAC particles to
deposit on the membrane surface, enhancing the ad-
sorption capacity of the cake layer. In this process,
160 mg PAC is used, and based on Fig. 7, the thick-
ness of the cake layer would hardly increase. Under
constant dye concentration and PAC addition, the
completely rejection last time is decreased with the
increase of operation pressure.
The deposition of PAC on the membrane surface
would also lead to an increase of resistance to the fil-
tration process and decrease the permeation flux of the
process, consequently. At constant thickness of PAC
cake layer, permeation flux would mainly depend on
the driven force. As presented in the Fig. 13, the stable
permeation flux is increased with the increase of the
operation pressure. It could also observe a transition
stage where permeation flux is not stable, which may
correlate with the PAC deposition velocity. The rate of
PAC particles deposition would be influenced by
driving force from operation pressure and shear force
from stirring. Higher driving force would cause PAC
particles more rapidly being driven to the membrane
surface. The shear force keeps constant, so the time
needed to form intact PAC cake layer will be shorter
under higher operation pressure. Above all, for the
purpose of stable high rejection, relatively optimized
operation pressure, 0.1 MPa, should be taken into
consideration.
Figure 13 Permeation flux as a function of filtration time
at different operation pressure
operation pressure/MPa: 0.05; 0.10; 0.15
4 CONCLUSIONS
The present study demonstrated that the efficient
removal of anion dye from aqueous solution was re-
ceived by UF process enhanced with PAC adsorption.
 Chin. J. Chem. Eng., Vol. 19, No. 5, October 2011
After the investigation of PAC adsorption perform-
ance, adsorption kinetics and isotherm indicated that
quick uptake of solute happened in first 20 min, and
the adsorption process was highly concentration de-
pendent. Then the PAC particles were added into the
UF process to promote the separation performance of
the membrane and the influences of the PAC adding
amount, initial dye concentration and operation pres-
sure on the dye aqueous solution treatment were in-
vestigated. It was demonstrated that with the increase
of PAC adding amount, the permeation flux of the UF
process slightly reduced and gradually reached to a
constant value, which was higher than those of con-
ventional nanofiltration membranes under comparable
conditions. Due to the convective flow and high per-
meation flux of UF membrane and the enhancement of
PAC adsorption, dye rejection was remarkably im-
proved compared with the PES pristine membrane
without PAC addition. It seems that the UF process
enhanced with PAC adsorption showed the good ap-
plication potential in the dye wastewater treatment.
NOMENCLATURE
A membrane area, m2
C dye concentration, mgL1
J permeation flux, Lm2h1 15
Q mass of dye adsorbed, mg
R rejection ratio, %
t time, h
V volume, L
w mass, mg
Subscripts
e equilibrium
f feed
p permeate effluent
0 initial
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