Development of Low-Cost Sericin-Coated Industrial Capacity Filters to Remove Antibiotics and Associated Chemicals from Effluents

In current situation, both conventional and advanced wastewater treatment technologies are either inefficient or costly for removal of micro-pollutants drug particles, heavy metals etc. from water. While, existing membranes have been reported to be not compatible for re-use and recycle. These gaps demonstrate that there is still apparent requirement of a cost-effective simpler solution for providing people with quality water. In the previous study, the study team have efficiently utilized Sericin to remove a model drug Ibuprofen from aqueous solution. In extension to this work, they have used physicochemical properties of Sericin to develop low-cost membranes for removal of micro-pollutants from drinking water. The Sericin coated UF membrane was found to be very efficient in removal of drug-based micro-pollutants while air-membranes completely removed PM10/2.5 and VOCs i.e., BTEX . In this project, the developed lab-prototype will be further optimized at industrial level and scaled up for commercial production of Sericin coated membranes. Further, this project will include pilot demonstration of membrane fabrication process, cost-effective post-treatment method and life-cycle study with procedure appropriate maintenance activates. This project will also provide a novel collection method for used UF membrane, its recoating and recirculation.