• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.191-199
• /
• 2022

In industrial production, the development of traditional polyamide nanofiltration (NF) membrane was limited due to its poor oxidation resistance, complex preparation process and high cost. In this study, a composite NF membrane with high flux, high separation performance, high oxidation resistance and simple process preparation was prepared by the method of dilute solution dip coating. And the sulfonated polysulfone was used for dip coating. The results indicated that the concentration of glycerin, the pore size of the based membrane, the composition of the coating solution, and the post-treatment process had important effects on the structure and performance of the composite NF membrane. The composite NF membrane prepared without glycerol protecting based membrane had a low flux, when the concentration of glycerin increased from 5% to 15%, the pure water flux of the composite NF membrane increased from 46.4 LMH to 108.2 LMH, and the salt rejection rate did not change much. By optimizing the coating system, the rejection rate of Na₂SO₄ and PEG1000 was higher than 90%, the pure water flux was higher than 40 LMH (60psi), and it can withstand 20,000 ppm.h NaClO solution cleaning. When the post treatment processes was adjusted, the salt rejection rate of NaCl solution (250 ppm) reached 45.5%, and the flux reached 62.2 LMH.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 1991.04a
• /
• pp.9-9
• /
• 1991

This paper will begin by describing osmosis and how reverse osmosis works. It will show how osmotic pressure affects reverse osmosis operations. It uill explain salt rejection, membrane flux, and recovery rates and the affect that salt built up has on membrane performance. It wil 1 explain the limitations of RO performance and why pretreatment is important. It will describe the two basic types of membrane, asymmetric and thin-film composite and explain the difference between these types plus compare cellulose acetate types to aromatic polyamide type membranes. It will discuss operating efficiences as it compares to feedwater pressure, concentration, temperature and pH. Finally, it will discuss the differences between tubular, plate and frame, hollow fiber and spiral wound element design. It will be a paper that talks about the basics of RO systems and should give a person who is unfamiliar with RO a basic introduction to this type of separation technology.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.55-70
• /
• 2016

Microfiltration/ultrafiltration (MF/UF) Adsorptive polyamide-6 (PA-6) membranes were prepared using wet phase inversion process. The prepared PA-6 membranes are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), porosity and swelling degree. In this study, the membranes performance has examined by adsorptive removal of copper ions from aqueous solutions in a batch adsorption mode. The $PA-6/H_2O$ membranes display sponge like and highly porous structures, with porosities of 41-73%. Under the conditions examined, the adsorption experiments have showed that the $PA-6/H_2O$ membranes had a good adsorption capacity (up to 120-280 mg/g at the initial copper ion concentration ($C_0$) = 680 mg/L, pH7), fast adsorption rates and short adsorption equilibrium times (less than 1.5-2 hrs) for copper ions. The fast adsorption in this study may be attributed to the high porosities and large pore sizes of the $PA-6/H_2O$ membranes, which have facilitated the transport of copper ions to the adsorption. The results obtained from the study illustrated that the copper ions which have adsorbed on the polyamide membranes can be effectively desorbed in an Ethylene dinitrilotetra acetic acid Di sodium salt ($Na_2$ EDTA) solution from initial concentration (up to 92% desorption efficiency) and the PA-6 membranes can be reused almost without loss of the adsorption capacity for copper ions. The results obtained from the study suggested that the $PA-6/H_2O$ membranes can be effectively applied for the adsorptive removal of copper ions from aqueous solutions.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.56 no.5
• /
• pp.679-686
• /
• 2018

Reverse osmosis (RO) concentration of sodium chloride, sodium acetate, and sodium citrate solutions has been performed by polyamide RO membrane. Concentration polarization phenomena was also studied by changing pressure, solute kinds, and initial solution concentration. Pressure effect on permeation flux was that the increase of flux was accompanied by the increase of pressure. Flux increase was observed by the decrease of initial solution concentration. Surface concentration on the RO membrane increases and so flux declines due to the concentration polarization. In the later phase of concentration, concentration polarization effect was decreased by the back diffusion of solute from the polariztion layer. In case of sodium citrate, its large ion size and charge density resulted in the discrepancy between theory and experimental data of concentration polarization. It may be due to electric repulsion on the membrane surface.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.8 no.6
• /
• pp.613-623
• /
• 2017

We report the novel thin film composite RO membrane modified by graphene oxide. The thin film composite RO membrane was exposed to 2000 mg/l sodium hypochloride; thereafter it was subjected to different graphene oxide concentration ranging from 50 mg/l to 1000 mg/l in water. The resultant membrane was crosslinked with 5000 mg/l N-hydroxysuccinimide. The performance of different membranes were analysed by solute rejection and water-flux measurement. It was found that 100 mg/l graphene oxide exposure followed by 5000 mg/l N-hydroxysuccinimide treatment resulted in the membrane with the highest solute rejection of 97.78% and water-flux of 4.64 Liter per sqm per hour per bar g. The membranes were characterized by contact angle for hydrophilicity, scanning electron micrographs for surface morphology, energy dispersive X-Ray for chemical composition of the surface, Atomic force microscope for surface roughness, ATR-FTIR for chemical structure identification. It was found that the graphene oxide modified membrane increases the salt rejection performance after exposure to high-fouling water containing albumin. Highly hydrophilic, antifouling surface formation with the nanomaterial led to the improved membrane performance. Moreover, the protocol of incorporating nanomaterial by this post-treatment is simple and can be applied to any RO membrane after it is manufactured.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.26 no.5
• /
• pp.391-400
• /
• 2016

In this work, novel thin film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membranes are developed via interfacial polymerization on the polysulfone (PS) substrate, using TEOS as the a sol-gel reagent to form hydrophilic interlayer polymer between PS and polyamide (PA). The PS substrate was cast on a very thin polyester nonwoven to reduce membrane resistance. With the incorporation of TEOS (tetraethoxy silane) polymer in the interface between PS and PA, the formed TFC FO membrane exhibits better hydrophilicity and improved water flux, and therefore superior membrane performance. By changing the polymerization sequence of PA interfacial polymerization and TEOS sol-gel condensation, the surface properties and performance of FO membranes are changed significantly. The permeability of FO membranes were estimated using the bench-scale FO test equipment. The distribution of the polysiloxane on composite membrane and morphology are also studied with FE-SEM and EDAX. The PS_PA_TEOS membrane showed highly enhanced water flux (79.2 LMH) but reverse salt flux (RSF) value (7.10 GMH) also increased. However, the flux of PS_TEOS_PA membrane increased moderately (54.1 LMH) without increasing RSF value (1.60 GMH) compare with PS_PA membrane.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.272-279
• /
• 2012

The neutral polymer, poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA), was coated onto polyamide (PA) thin film composite reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. And then these membranes were investigated for the model foulants, bovine serum albumin (BSA), humic acid (HA), and sodium alginate (SA) whether there are aome improvement. As the operating pressure increased with 2, 4, 8 atm for BSA, HA and SA 100 ppm in feed solution, the fouling phenomena was worse for both none and PSSA coated membranes. The fouling occurred in the sequence of BSA > HA > SA due to the interactions between PVA snd functional groups of foulants, and on the other hand the fouling reduction was observed in the order of HA > BSA > SA. The observation of scanning electron microscopy photographs showed the same trend. As a result, there should be the improvement of fouling phenomena for the PVA coated RO membranes and the case of HA was shown distinct.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.49 no.4
• /
• pp.460-464
• /
• 2011

Poly(ether-block-amide)(PEBA, $PEBAX^{TM}$) resin is a thermoplastic elastomer combining linear chains of hard-rigid polyamide block interspaced soft-flexible polyether block. It was believed that the hard polyamide block provides the mechanical strength and permeation selectivity, whereas gas transport occurs primarily through the soft polyether block. The objective of this work was to investigate the gas permeation properties of carbon dioxide and methane for $PEBAX^{TM}$-1657 membrane and compare with those obtained for other grade of $PEBAX^{TM}$, $PEBAX^{TM}$-2533. And the organic/inorganic hybrid membranes were prepared using $PEBAX^{TM}$ and TEOS(tetraethoxysilane) by sol-gel process, and gas permeation properties were studied. $PEBAX^{TM}$-2533 membrane exhibited higher gas permeability coefficients than $PEBAX^{TM}$-1657 membrane. This was explained by the increase of chain mobility. The permeability coefficients for $PEBAX^{TM}$/TEOS hybrid membranes were higher than pure $PEBAX^{TM}$ membranes. This results were explained by the reduction of crystallinity of polyamide block by the introduction of TEOS. Ideal separation factor of hybrid membranes does not change much. This might be due to the increase of solubility selectivity.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.5 no.3
• /
• pp.171-182
• /
• 2014

Organic compounds are adsorbed on RO/NF membranes, and the adsorption may influence the rejection of organic compounds by the membranes. Because almost RO/NF membranes are composite membranes, the results obtained by adsorption experiment with using membrane pieces are unable to avoid the influence by the support membrane. In this work, the interaction between membrane polymer and organic solutes was examined by an inverse HPLC methodology. Poly (m-phenylenetrimesoylate), the constituent of skin layer of RO/NF membranes, was coated on silica gel particles and used as a stationary phase for HPLC. When water was used as a mobile phase, almost hydrophilic aliphatic compounds were not effectively adsorbed on the stationary phase, although hydrophobic compounds were slightly adsorbed. The results indicated that the hydrophilic aliphatic compounds are useful probe solutes to examine the molecular sieving effect of a membrane. When water was used as a mobile phase, the aromatic compounds were strongly retained, and therefore $CH_3CN/H_2O$ (30/70) was used as a mobile phase. It was revealed that the adsorption of aromatic compounds was controlled by stacking between solute and polymer and was hindered by non-planar structure and substituents.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.427-438
• /
• 2023

In this study, in order to improve the performance of the reverse osmosis membrane with high water flux and high salt rejection, a study was conducted on the evaluation of characteristics according to the curing temperature and time during various additives and interfacial polymerization. The morphology of the membrane with no additives and the membrane with additives both showed a "rigid-and-valley" structure, confirming that the polyamide layer was successfully polymerized on the surface of the porous support layer. In addition, the additive of 2-Ethyl-1,3-hexanediol (EHD) had improved hydrophilicity and water flux, which was confirmed by measuring the contact angle. Finally, a highly permeable TFC membrane with NaCl and MgSO₄ salt rejection of 97.78% and 98.7% and a high water flux of 3.31 L/(m²⋅h⋅bar) was prepared.