*Author for correspondence Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol 9(S1), DOI: 10.17485/ijst/2016/v9iS1/110379, December 2016 ISSN (Print) : 0974-6846 ISSN (Online) : 0974-5645 Reactive Blue Dye Removal by Membrane Distillation using PVDF Membrane K.C. Chong 1 *, S.O. Lai 1 , H.S.Thiam 1 , S.S. Lee 1 , W.J. Lau 2 and N.M. Mokhtar 3 1 Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science, Jalan Sungai Long, Bandar Sungai Long-43300 Kajang, Malaysia 2 Advance Membrane Technology Research Centre (AMTEC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor-81310, Malaysia 3 Faculty of Engineering Technology, Universiti Pahang Malaysia, Lebuhraya Tun Razak-26300 Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia chongkc@utar.edu.my*, laiso@utar.edu.my, thiamhs@utar.edu.my lsshin@utar.edu.my, lwoeijye@utm.my, nadzirah@ump.edu.my Keywords: Membrane Distillation, Polyvinylidene Fluoride, Reactive Blue, Textile Wastewater Abstract Background/Objectives: Membrane distillation (MD) is a thermally driven water separation process which has lately attracted the attention from the academics and industries due to its lower energy requirement relative to pressure driven process. The aim of this paper is to study the performance of self-fabricate hollow fiber membrane in reactive blue dye removal by membrane distillation technique. Methods/Statistical Analysis: In this work, the potential use of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) for reactive blue dye removal was study by direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). The membranes were produced by phase inversion spinning method with 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) solvent and ethylene glycol (EG) additive. The membranes were characterized in term of membrane morphology, porosity, liquid entry pressure and hydrophobicity. Findings: Relative to the pristine membrane, PVDF membrane with additive was discovered to be possessed enhanced membrane characteristics, i.e. higher liquid entry pressure and larger pore size. In terms of membrane stability, the experimental results demonstrated that the PVDF membranes with EG as additive were able to generate consistent flux, while maintaining a superior rejection rate of reactive blue dye. Application/Improvements: The result in this work shown that PVDF membrane with EG as additive possesses a superior permeate flux performance and rejection rate which suggested that this membrane possesses the prospect to be applied in the industrial textile wastewater treatment. 1. Introduction Large quantities of water were consumed by textile dyeing industry which produces massive amount of wastewater during fnishing and dyeing processes. Te wastewa- ters from the textile industry usually contain residues of reactive dyes and chemicals, and also hard-degrad- able materials 1 . Te dyes found in the textile wastewater are mainly heterocyclic and aromatic compounds. Te structure of these compounds is more stable and com- plex, as in the result of greater difculty to degrade the wastewater of textile dyes 2 . With the recent development membrane technology, membrane separation techniques such as Nano-Filtration (NF) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) are widely applied dye residues separation from textile wastewater. MD is frst introduced in the year 1963 as a way to separate salt from salt water (desalination process) 3 . However, it has not been commercialized at that time due to economical perspective was not as attractive as com- pared to its counterparts like RO process. Nevertheless, with the rapid development of polymeric membrane