Membrane Based Separation

Processes
 Definition of a membrane
• It is an interface that separates the two phases
and restricts the transport of various chemical
species through it. Membrane can be
homogeneous, heterogeneous, symmetric,
asymmetric, charged, neutral.
 DRIVING FORCES
• Pressure driven operations - Microfiltration,
Ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, Reverse
osmosis.
• Concentration driven operation-Dialysis,
Evaporation, Forward osmosis, Artifical lung,
Gas seperation.
• Electric potential gradient driven operation –
Electrodialysis, Membrane electrolysis, Elctrofiltration,
fuel cell

• Temperature gradient driven operation- Membrane

distillation.

(In general, wastewater treatment mostly used are

pressure driven processes (microfiltration, ultrafiltation,
Nanofiltration, reverse osmosis ) and Electrodialysis)
Fundamentals of Separation
 

Processes
• In an effluent treatment process, there are three
steps, namely, primary, secondary and tertiary
treatment processes.
• All these processes are primarily separation
processes
• Primary treatment processes include coagulation,
flocculation, etc. Secondary treatment processes are
mainly oxidation ponds, etc. Tertiary treatment
processes involve adsorption, membrane separation,
etc.
• In food and juice processing industries,
separations are primary stages of operation.
Most of the pharmaceutical industries have
separation units as integral parts in the
downstream or they are the main units. In
milk processing separation processes are
primary.
Separation Factor
• separation factor is a measure of the
preference of one ion for another ion.
• Separation factor between two species ‘i’ and
‘j is defined as
• The separation processes are divided into two
categories, namely, equilibrium governed
separation processes and rate governed
separation processes.
• In equilibrium governed separation processes,
the product phases are in equilibrium with the
inlet phases.
• On the other hand, in rate governed
separation processes, product phase
composition or separation occurs due to the
difference of rate of physical transport of
species alone.
• Distillation, absorption etc. are examples of
equilibrium governed separation processes.
• On the other hand, membrane based
processes are rate governed separation
process.
 Membrane Casting:
• Common polymeric membrane material is
Cellulose Acetate. Various steps of a typical
casting process are:
1. Solvent (acetone) is added to polymer. A
viscous solution is prepared.
2. It is put on a plate. Place another plate on top
of it. The gap is of the order of~ 0.25mm
3. Give a one directional motion to the top plate.
A thin film is produced on the bottom plate.
4. Take out bottom plate and place it in ice-
water bath, which releases the film.
5. Heat treat the film in hot water.
 Typical casting conditions
• Casting solution : CA 25%, Frmamide 30% and
Acetone 45%.
• Casting temperature : 250C
• Evaporation time : 1 minute
 APPLICATION
• Desalting
• Softening
• Trace metals and ions removal
• Removing color, odor and other organic
contaminants.
Categorization of such processes
 Reverse Osmosis
• Small solute particles to be separated.
• Molecular weight < 100
• Pore size: < 0.5 Nm
• Pressure: > 25 atm.
• Permeation is main transport mechanism
• Example: Filtration of salt solution
 Nanofiltration
• Particles to be separated with Molecular
weight: 200 – 1000
• Pore size: 0.5 – 2 Nm
• Pressure: 15 – 25 atm.
• Particle retention of salts.
• Example: Filtration of dyes, small molecular
weight organics, etc.
 Ultrafiltration
• Molecular weight of particles : 103 - 105
• Pore size: 2 – 100 Nm
• Pressure: 6 – 8 atm.
• Transport Mechanism: Convection (main) +
diffusion
• Example: Filtration of protein, Red blood
cells, polymers, etc.
 Microfiltration
• Molecular weight > 1 lakh
• Pore size: more than 100 Nm
• Pressure: 2 – 4 atm.
• Example: Filtration of clay solution, latex,
paint, etc.
 Observed retention
• This property indicates the extent of
separation of a membrane can produce with
respect to the solute concentration in the
feed.
• Cp = Solute concentration in permeate
• Co = Solute concentration in feed
• If Ro → 1.0, solute is completely retained by
the membrane.
 Real retention:
• Real retention is a constant that defines the
partition of the solute concentration across the
membrane, i.e., between the membrane-
solution interface and the permeate side.
• Since, this definition is not masked by any
physical phenomenon like concentration
polarization, (defined later) etc., this definition
indicates the true separation efficiency of the
solute by the membrane.
• Here, Cm= Solute concentration in membrane
solution interface.
• It may be mentioned here that since, membrane
surface concentration of solute is always greater
than the bulk concentration, real retention is
always greater than observed retention. For
complete solute retention, Rr = 1.0
 Membrane modules:
• The practical equipment where the actual
membrane based separation occurs is known
as membrane modules.
• The basic aim of development of these
modules is to provide maximum membrane
area in relatively smaller volume, so that the
permeate flux i.e.,
• the productivity of the system is maximum.
• These membrane modules are of four types,
(i) plate and frame module,
(ii) hollow fiber module,
(iii) spiral wound and
(iv) tubular modules.
• Each of these modules is described below:
 Plate and frame modules
• The heart of plate-frame module is the support plate that is
sandwiched between two flat sheet membranes.
• The membranes are sealed to the plate, either gaskets with
locking devices, glue or directly bonded.
• The plate is internally porous and provides a flow channel
for the permeate which is collected from a tube on the side
of the plate.
• Ribs or grooves on the face of the plate provide a feed side
flow channel.
• The feed channel can be a clear path with channel heights
from 0.3 to 0.75 mm.
• The higher channel heights are necessary for high viscosity feeds;
reduction in power consumption of 20 to 40% can be achieved by
using a 0.6 mm channel compared to a 0.3 mm channel.
• Alternatively, retentate separator screens (20 or 50 mesh
polypropelyne) can be used.
• Commercial plate-frame units are usually horizontal with the
membrane plates mounted vertically.
• They can be run with each plate in parallel plates in two or three
series.
• Laboratory are also available as preformed stacks up to 10 plates.
 Tubular modules
• The membrane is cast on the inside surface of a porous tube.
• Tubular membranes operate in tangential, or cross-flow,
design where process fluid is pumped along the membrane
surface in a sweeping type action.
• The feed solution is pumped through the center of the tube
at velocities as high as 6 m/s.
• These cross-flow velocities minimize the formation of a
concentration polarization layer on the membrane surface,
promoting high and stable flux and easy cleaning, especially
when the objective is to achieve high suspended solids in the
MF, UF or NF concentrate.
• Tubular membrane systems produce the greatest yields
and the highest final suspended solids concentration
levels.
• Tubular MF, UF and NF systems do not require significant
prefiltration.
• Tubular membranes are ideally suited to treatment of
metalworking oily waste, wastewater minimization and
recovery from industrial processes, treatment of pulp and
paper industry waste, etc.
• Tubular membranes typically have life upto 2 to 10 years.
 Hollow fiber module
• In hollow fiber module, lots of hollow fibers (each fiber is a
tubular module) are kept in a large pipe.
• Geometry allows a high membrane surface area to be
contained in a compact module.
• This means large volumes can be filtered, while utilizing
minimal space, with low power consumption.
• Hollow fiber membranes can be designed for circulation,
dead end and single pass operation.
• Some of the many hollow fiber membrane filtration
applications include, potable water treatment, juice
clarification, wine filtration, dairy processing, etc.
• Hollow fiber membranes offer the unique
benefits of high membrane packing densities,
sanitary designs and, due to their structural
integrity and construction, can withstand
permeate back pressure thus allowing
flexibility in system design and operation.
 Spiral wound module
• In spiral wound membrane, membrane is cast as
a film onto flat sheet.
• Membranes are sandwiched together with feed
spacers (typical thickness 0.03 to 0.1 inch) and
permeate carrier.
• They are sealed at each edge and wound up
around a perforated tube.
• The module diameter ranges from 2.5 to 18 inch
and length varies from 30 to 60 inch.
• The application of spiral wound module
includes, seawater desalination, brackish
water treatment, potable water treatment,
dairy processing, electrocoat paint recovery,
protein separation,
• The membrane permeation flux (J)  is defined
as the volume flowing through the membrane
per unit area per unit time
3.0 MEMBRANE SEPERATION
• The membrane permeation flux (J)  is defined
as the volume flowing through the membrane
per unit area per unit time
• The pressure vessel system consists of an
array of pressure vessels (modules) on a rack.

• All the modules on a rack are operated in

parallel.
• The racks are also operated in parallel.
• The modules are generally 100 to 300 mm in
diameter and 1 to 6 m long. The racks may
contain between 2 and 300 modules.
• One module typically contains between 8 and
70 m 2 of filter area
• Flux rates range from 0.034 to 0.170 m 3 /h ・
m 2 (m/h)
• Backwashing. The backwash cleaning cycle is
automatically controlled.
• All modules in a rack are washed
simultaneously. Backwashing occurs at some
preset interval ranging from 30 to 90 minutes
and it lasts 1 to 5 minutes.
• The off-line time for a rack may be longer than
5 minutes because of the time inherent in
valve sequencing for shut down and start up.
• the mass transfer coefficient is a diffusion rate
constant that relates the mass transfer rate, mass
transfer area, and concentration change as driving
force

• The osmotic gradient is the difference in

concentration between two solutions on either side
of a semipermeable membrane, and is used to tell
the difference in percentages of the concentration of
a specific particle dissolved in a solution.
• The pressure gradient (typically of air but
more generally of any fluid) is a physical
quantity that describes in which direction and
at what rate the pressure increases the most
rapidly around a particular location.