Abstract
Removal of impurities from cooking oil is an important step in providing the possibility of WCO reuse to extend the life cycle of cooking oil, leading to a reduction of WCO disposal. This study was conducted to investigate the performance of a polypropylene (PP) hollow fiber ultrafiltration (UF) membrane for removal of impurities from WCO. The results showed that the membrane could remove water content up to 95% (at 0.1 MPa and 30 C), but the color improvement was only 9.5% as indicated by the absorbance reduction. Within the range of the operation conditions (i.e. a trans-membrane pressure of 0.1-0.2 MPa and a temperature of 30-50 C), the oil flux varied from 0.3 L.m"?2.h"?1 to 1.3 L.m-2.h-1. In long-term operation, the membrane wettability was improved as shown by the oil contact angle decreasing from 28.21.5 to 14.40.5. This resulted in a higher oil flux. At the same time, the hydrophobicity was also increased, as indicated by an increase in the water contact angle from 95.40.7 to 97.31.1.