Hegoburu, IgnacioZedda, Karina ListiariniVelizarov, Svetlozar2021-04-272021-04-272020-12-060076-6356PURE: 28469225PURE UUID: f71302f2-4df2-4e45-96c9-e929a8d8b7c7Scopus: 85097353228PubMed: 33291325PubMedCentral: PMC7762135WOS: 000602725700001ORCID: /0000-0002-9446-0897/work/92872670http://hdl.handle.net/10362/116278UID/QUI/50006/2019 World-EM3E-4SWIndustrial adoption of nanofiltration (NF) for treatment of low-pH wastewater is hindered by the limited membrane lifetime at strongly acidic conditions. In this study, the electroplating wastewater (EPWW) filtration performance of a novel pH-stable NF membrane is compared against a commercial NF membrane and a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane. The presented membrane is relatively hydrophobic and has its isoelectric point (IEP) at pH 4.1, with a high and positive zeta potential of +10 mV at pH 3. A novel method was developed to determine the molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) at a pH of 2, with a finding that the membrane maintains the same MWCO (~500 Da) as under neutral pH operating conditions, whereas the commercial membrane significantly increases it. In crossflow filtration experiments with simulated EPWW, rejections above 75% are observed for all heavy metals (compared to only 30% of the commercial membrane), while keeping the same pH in the feed and permeate. Despite the relatively lower permeance of the prepared membrane (~1 L/(m2·h·bar) versus ~4 L/(m2·h·bar) of the commercial membrane), its high heavy metals rejection coupled with a very low acid rejection makes it suitable for acid recovery applications.274608989engAcid recoveryDonnan effectElectroplatingExtreme pHNanofiltrationChemical Engineering (miscellaneous)Process Chemistry and TechnologyFiltration and Separationjournal article10.3390/membranes10120399https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85097353228