An integrated separating system constructed by laser-patterned commercially available materials towards oily domestic sewage.

Despite much effort to sewage treatment, the development of integrated systems for in-situ, continuous, and high-efficient oil-water separation remains challenges in practical application, especially for the treatment of kitchen sewage containing high viscous oils. Here, we demonstrate a synergistic purification system consisting of laser-machined engineering membranes with opposite wettability to enable efficient sewage separation. The system could be placed at the source of sewage discharge to carry out an early separation of the real oily domestic sewage at evaluated temperature. A series of demonstrations verify that the obtained system shows a high separation flux of up to 318 L m−2 h−1 for beef tallow/water mixture and 248 L m−2 h−1 for hot pot oily sewage, and good duration even if in harsh environment or multiple cycling utilization. Together with excellent depuration ability and stability at high temperature (70 °C) or salt immersion, this separation system shows great potential for tackling kitchen oily sewage. Importantly, the system still has a good flux up to 110 L m−2 h−1 and relatively high separation efficiency after tens of cycles. This work provides an ingenious integrated strategy for the design of novel separation systems or devices in real scenarios. A synergistic purification system consisting of laser-machined engineering membranes with opposite wettability enables efficient oily domestic sewage separation. [Display omitted] • Commercially available membranes were treated via a laser micro-/nanofabrication. • The resultant membranes with opposite wettability were integrated into one system. • Such a system at the emission drains achieves a high separation flux of 318 L m−2 h−1. • It exhibits excellent depuration ability and stability towards practical oily sewage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]