ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Unlocking the potentialities of biomass-based cellulose acetate membrane from waste rice husk for water treatment

Nazrin Stamina, N. Awanis Hashim, Li De Ong, Mohamad Fairus Rabuni, and Norhuda Abdul Manaf

Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

E-mail: awanis@um.edu.my

Received: 27 October 2023  Accepted: 8 April 2024

Abstract:

Open burning of rice husk as one of the waste disposal methods could contribute to the increase of greenhouse gas emissions and eventually worsen the global warming. This article reports the potentialities of converting waste rice husk into water filtration membrane as one of the biomass valorization technologies. Pure cellulose acetate (CA) membranes were fabricated from waste rice husk (RH) through extraction, acetylation and phase inversion process. Cellulose was extracted from RH before being acetylated with acetic anhydride. CA with degree of substitution and acetyl percentage of 2.71 and 41.24% was recorded, respectively. Using phase inversion method, CA membranes were fabricated with increasing CA concentration from 5 to 15%. The pure water flux, porosity, mean pore size and water contact angle were characterized from the synthesized membranes. The performance of CA membrane was addressed by methylene blue separation. The results showed that the pure water permeability was up to 171 L/m²·bar·h and the dye rejection efficiency achieved up to 92%. This study provides a novel insight for future studies on waste biomass valorization, specifically RH, toward its high-value applications in sustainable and low-cost membrane fabrication for water treatment.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords: Rice husk; Cellulose; Cellulose acetate; Membrane; Water treatment

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-024-03455-w

Chemical Papers 78 (10) 5793–5804 (2024)