Evaluation of Nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis Membranes' Performance for PFAS and Ion Rejection from Drinking Water Sources in Sweden
(2025) METM01 20251Chemical Engineering (M.Sc.Eng.)
- Abstract
- Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) include a large group of chemicals that has been used for many decades because of their mechanical and chemical stability. They owe these unique features due to the strong C-F bonds in their molecules. PFAS can be fully or partly fluorinated and the more fluorinated they get, the more persistent they become. They have been used in several industries such as cosmetics, fire extinguishing foams, textile and colour industry. The problem with these compounds is that they persist in the environment and they can accumulate in the food chain, ending up in the human body.
Recent research on toxic effects of PFAS showed that they can cause several known diseases and there have been correlations between... (More) - Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) include a large group of chemicals that has been used for many decades because of their mechanical and chemical stability. They owe these unique features due to the strong C-F bonds in their molecules. PFAS can be fully or partly fluorinated and the more fluorinated they get, the more persistent they become. They have been used in several industries such as cosmetics, fire extinguishing foams, textile and colour industry. The problem with these compounds is that they persist in the environment and they can accumulate in the food chain, ending up in the human body.
Recent research on toxic effects of PFAS showed that they can cause several known diseases and there have been correlations between the PFAS concentrations in the water with different types of cancers, hormone imbalances and many other diseases. Therefore, it is important to remove the PFAS from the water resources as the water resources could be the main PFAS exposure pathway among populations. Presently, many methods are under investigation to treat PFAS and remove it from the drinking water resources.
This study focuses on the removal of PFAS through membrane filtration. Nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes have a long history in removing organic pollutants and have been also used to treat waters polluted with PFAS. The membrane’s performance under different testing conditions can differ and finding a way to optimize their performance and determining which membranes are most suited for PFAS treatment is a key factor for creating an efficient plant with high PFAS rejection rate. Therefore, for this study, the data for membrane permeability, fouling rate, desalting rate, relative performance, ion rejection rate has been studied.
Also, as an addition to the project, closed-circuit operations were conducted to test the mem-branes’ performance in treating highly concentrated feed water. The results of this experiment showed a high desalting potential both for RO and NF membranes and discussed the varia-tions in the permeability of different membranes. Also, high ion rejection rates were observed both for open and closed system configuration.
Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the selection and operation of NF and RO membranes for PFAS treatment, highlighting their potential for high ion rejection efficiency and informing the design of more effective and sustainable water purification systems. In addition, another part of this report focuses on the membranes’ ability to concentrate the solutes for resource recovery purposes. This could provide promising insights for the use of NF and RO membranes in integrated systems to extract and recover materials from the wastewater streams. (Less) - Popular Abstract
- Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are dangerous chemicals that can be found in the environment, particularly in water. These chemicals are very persistent and do not break down easily, therefore, they are being called “forever chemicals”. When contaminated water is used for drinking purposes, these chemicals can enter the human body and cause health problems, such as cancer and other chronic conditions. To protect people's health, itis important to treat water before it is used for drinking. In addition to PFAS, other harmful substances can also be present in water, making it unhealthy and unsafe to consume. One effective way to treat water is through filtration, a process that rejects most of these unwanted substances.
Think of... (More) - Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are dangerous chemicals that can be found in the environment, particularly in water. These chemicals are very persistent and do not break down easily, therefore, they are being called “forever chemicals”. When contaminated water is used for drinking purposes, these chemicals can enter the human body and cause health problems, such as cancer and other chronic conditions. To protect people's health, itis important to treat water before it is used for drinking. In addition to PFAS, other harmful substances can also be present in water, making it unhealthy and unsafe to consume. One effective way to treat water is through filtration, a process that rejects most of these unwanted substances.
Think of filtration like a mesh screen used to strain pasta. When you pour the boiling water and pasta through the strainer, the pasta stays behind while the water flows through. In a similar way, water filtration uses special membranes that act like strainers, trapping contaminants while allowing clean water to pass through. This study focuses on two types of filtration membranes, namely nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO), and assesses how well they can reject contaminants, including PFAS, from drinking water.
The membranes were tested to measure how well they filter contaminants and how fast they allow water to pass through. NF membranes have larger pores, which allows water to flow faster through, much like a mesh strainer with larger holes. In contrast, RO membranes have a dense structure without pores, which means they are more effective to retain contaminants and produce cleaner water.
Both NF and RO membranes showed promising results in filtering out contaminants, so they are likely to be effective in removing PFAS as well. However, these membranes can have challenges over time: clogging. This is similar to a mesh strainer getting clogged with pasta bits. However, by using normal water or some chemicals, the clogging can be removed from the membranes like washing the strainer after use.
Membranes showed great efficiency in rejecting salts like NaCl and MgSO4. Also, they showed high rejecting rates for heavy metals. Additionally, to avoid reduce wastewater, concentration steps could be taken by use of RO and NF membranes to increase water recovery through more steps of filtration. This could also help with concentrating the metals and salts for resource recovery purposes such as extraction of lithium from the wastewater. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9199599
- author
- Ziaddini, Mahdi LU
- supervisor
-
- Frank Lipnizki LU
- Tobias Hey LU
- organization
- alternative title
- Evaluation of Nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis Membranes' Performance for PFAS and Ion Rejection from Drinking Water Sources in Sweden : Assessing commercial membrane flux variations throughout the experiment and their ion rejection efficiency
- course
- METM01 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- PFAS treatment, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, closed-circuit membrane operation, drinking water treatment, ion rejection, membrane technology
- language
- English
- id
- 9199599
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-16 14:53:53
- date last changed
- 2025-06-16 14:53:53
@misc{9199599,
abstract = {{Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) include a large group of chemicals that has been used for many decades because of their mechanical and chemical stability. They owe these unique features due to the strong C-F bonds in their molecules. PFAS can be fully or partly fluorinated and the more fluorinated they get, the more persistent they become. They have been used in several industries such as cosmetics, fire extinguishing foams, textile and colour industry. The problem with these compounds is that they persist in the environment and they can accumulate in the food chain, ending up in the human body.
Recent research on toxic effects of PFAS showed that they can cause several known diseases and there have been correlations between the PFAS concentrations in the water with different types of cancers, hormone imbalances and many other diseases. Therefore, it is important to remove the PFAS from the water resources as the water resources could be the main PFAS exposure pathway among populations. Presently, many methods are under investigation to treat PFAS and remove it from the drinking water resources.
This study focuses on the removal of PFAS through membrane filtration. Nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes have a long history in removing organic pollutants and have been also used to treat waters polluted with PFAS. The membrane’s performance under different testing conditions can differ and finding a way to optimize their performance and determining which membranes are most suited for PFAS treatment is a key factor for creating an efficient plant with high PFAS rejection rate. Therefore, for this study, the data for membrane permeability, fouling rate, desalting rate, relative performance, ion rejection rate has been studied.
Also, as an addition to the project, closed-circuit operations were conducted to test the mem-branes’ performance in treating highly concentrated feed water. The results of this experiment showed a high desalting potential both for RO and NF membranes and discussed the varia-tions in the permeability of different membranes. Also, high ion rejection rates were observed both for open and closed system configuration.
Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the selection and operation of NF and RO membranes for PFAS treatment, highlighting their potential for high ion rejection efficiency and informing the design of more effective and sustainable water purification systems. In addition, another part of this report focuses on the membranes’ ability to concentrate the solutes for resource recovery purposes. This could provide promising insights for the use of NF and RO membranes in integrated systems to extract and recover materials from the wastewater streams.}},
author = {{Ziaddini, Mahdi}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Evaluation of Nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis Membranes' Performance for PFAS and Ion Rejection from Drinking Water Sources in Sweden}},
year = {{2025}},
}