C5 Paper

Abstract

Background and Objective: As consequence of the increasing demand of membrane technology use, efforts to use natural resources for membrane material are gaining more and more importance. The purpose of this study was to increase fouling resistant of Cellulose Acetate (CA) membranes. Materials and Methods: The CA membranes prepared from water hyacinth were modified by addition of chitosan via either blending in phase separation method or via post-modification by surface coating. The membranes were characterized in term of water permeability, surface morphology, surface chemistry and surface hydrophilicity. The biofouling property was examined using Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and protein. Results: The results showed that addition of chitosan changed the membrane characteristics, biofouling behavior and filtration performance. Inhibition zone method could not show clearly the antimicrobial activity of chitosan added against both E. coli and S. aureus . However, visualization of membrane surface clearly showed the antimicrobial activity. Conclusion: Overall, the addition of chitosan increased the resistance of CA membrane towards microbial fouling but it did not increase the resistance towards protein fouling.