Novel Fouling Resistant Electrospun Membranes for Treating Hydraulic Fracturing Flow Back and Produced Water

Membrane distillation is an emerging technology for treating oily wastewaters especially from oil and gas manufacturing operations. Here we focus on the development of fouling resistant membranes for treating hydraulic fracturing flow back and produced water. These wastewaters are highly fouling as they contain not only dissolved salts but also dissolved organic compounds and surfactants. We have developed a bilayer electrospun membrane that consists of an omniphobic bottom layer to prevent low-surface tension solution wicking and an under-water oleophobic antifouling surface to suppress foulant deposition. Silica nanoparticles were grown on the bottom layer through electrochemical interaction followed by coating with a fluorine monomer on the fiber surface. The zwitterionic co-polymer poly (glycidyl methacrylate-sulfobetaine methacrylate) (GS) was grafted using self-assembly between hydroxy group on the surface generated by alkaline treatment and anchor segment epoxy group on GS. The novel electrospun membrane have been challenged with industrial real hydraulic fracturing produce water. Preliminary results shows that fouling in our bilayered membrane is significantly reduced. This bilayer electrospun membrane may enable the commercialization of membrane distillation for treating highly impaired hydraulic fracture and flow back wastewaters.