Reclamation of nutrient from kenaf retted wastewater using newly designed ultrafiltration membrane

Membrane has high potential in reclamation of water and wastewater which contains undesirable elements. Kenaf retted wastewater which is generated from fiber production process contain high concentration of nutrients. In addition according to previous research, this wastewater can be considered as good potential source of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) and it is suitable for kenaf growth. Currently these nutrients are being disposed in the natural water system. The aim of this study is to reclaim these nutrients using a newly formulated and fabricated flat sheet ultrafiltration membrane which was designed for this task. In this work, a flat-sheet membrane which consisting of Polysulfone (PSF) as polymer was employed for the development and fabrication of a newly formulated ultrafiltration membrane for the reclamation of nutrients from kenaf retted wastewater. The performance of the prepared membrane was analyzed through the concentrations of the reclaimed of total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and potassium (K⁺) from the retentate water. The concentrations of nutrients were tested using spectrophotometer DR2800. The experimental result shows that, the newly fabricated membrane flat sheet ultrafiltration membrane are able to reclaim more than 85% nutrients from kenaf retted wastewater.