Reutilizing Waste Expanded Polystyrene Into PEG‐Modified Hydrophilic Membranes for Methylene Blue Removal From Wastewater

ABSTRACT

This study presents an environmentally friendly method for developing hydrophilic filtration membranes using waste expanded polystyrene (EPS) for the removal of methylene blue (MB), a common pollutant in textile wastewater. To impart hydrophilicity and permeability, polyethylene glycol (PEG) was added to the EPS as porogen, and a cotton fabric was used as a supporting material. The membranes were obtained as a result of a simple dip‐coating technique with a solution of EPS and PEG in tetrahydrofuran (THF). The effect of PEG amount on membrane performance was evaluated by equilibrium water content, hydraulic permeability, pure water flux, and dye rejection efficiency. Among the different prepared samples, P3 membrane having 0.2 mL of PEG 400 and 0.5 g of EPS dissolved in 10 mL of THF showed favorable results, with equilibrium water content of 24.4%, pure water permeance of 518.8 L m ⁻²  h ⁻¹ atm ⁻¹ , pure water flux of 306.1 L m ⁻²  h ⁻¹ and dye rejection efficiency 78 ± 4.0%. Furthermore, FTIR and SEM analyses suggested the stability of the membranes to the eight consecutive cycles of filtration. These findings suggest that use of PEG‐modified EPS membrane is economically viable approach to solve the plastic waste and wastewater cleanup issue.