Laboratorio de Operaciones de separacin

Facultad Ingenieria - Ingenieria qumica

Universidad de La Sabana

MEMBRANE SELECTIVITY OF THE REVERSE OSMOSIS APPARATUS

Santiago Moreano Rojas - Lina Vanessa Beltrn Franco. Estudiantes de Ingeniera Qumica Universidad de
La Sabana. Facultad de ingeniera. Campus del Puente del Comn, km. 7, Autopista norte de Bogot. Cha,
Cundinamarca Colombia. Febrero 24 de 2017.

1. SUMMARY
At the start of the practice was necessary to prepare six sodium chloride (NaCl) samples to do the
calibration curve, we adapted the theoretical concentration given by the apparatus guide because the asked
amount of salt overpassed the maximum quantity that the laboratory can give to us. When the calibration
curve was done, we proceed to measure the conductivity inside the water of the tank, after this, we proceed
to fill the feed tank with common water until 160 L was reached. We proceed to turn on the pump to start the
reverse osmosis process, after this, the valves N2 and 4 were adjusted to obtain the desired pressure .
When the system was stable, both permeate and retentate conductivities were measured to calculate the
salt concentration, the procedure was repeated at the same pressure and different feed fluxes. The
maximum membrane selectivity was 99,07% at a difference of pressure of 12 bar and a feed flux of 2300
L/h. The most important conclusion is that the membrane selectivity is directly proportional with the
difference of pressure and the retentate flux, so as much as these variables increase , the membrane
selectivity is going to increase as well.

2. INTRODUCTION

The separation process called Reverse Osmosis is used for the purpose of purifying and desalinating water.
The water feed is introduced under pressure and passes through a non-porous membrane where the vast
majority of salts and uncharged molecules are retained by the membrane. After this two different currents
come out, the permeate is a much purer water and in the retentate, a very concentrated water comes out.

The membranes used in this type of processes may be of a cellulose acetate and triacetate formulation are
especially suitable for high fluxes and are used in tube form also as spiral wound flat sheets or hollow fiber
structures, another form is aromatic polyamides and, finally, cross-linked aromatic polyamides, are able to
withstand lower fluxes. However, they are manufactured in a way that their specific surface area exceeds
that of cellulose acetate by fifteen times, and their resistance to chemical and biological agents is high
makes it durable.1 In the reverse osmosis process hollow fiber modules are used, which is the filtration unit
used in these pressurized systems to separate suspended particles in liquids. 2

In the reverse osmosis system, a pre-treatment is necessary for the removal of particles that can obstruct
the membrane. Check for any ions or solutes in solution with poor solubility. It must be foreseen if they are
to precipitate in the membrane when concentrating the retentate, if it is determined that there is probability of

1
(Vian Ortuo, 1998)
2
(AXG MEMBRANE)
precipitation of these particles, they must be eliminated or returned as soluble as possible to avoid what
precipitate. 3

As one of the main interests in performing reverse osmosis is to obtain the highest quality of pure water per
unit area of membrane, two important parameters must be considered. The first is the flow of water, which is
defined as the amount of product recovered per day per unit area of membrane. Flow through the
membrane is determined by the physical characteristics of the membrane, such as thickness, chemical
composition and porosity. In addition, the system conditions, such as temperature, differential pressure
across the membrane (osmotic pressure) and concentration of the solution. In practice the water flow only
comes as a function of the differential pressure across the membrane.

The second parameter is the rejection factor, it is a quantitative measure which is based on the value of the
solute concentration in the feed solution and the solute concentration in the permeate. The rejection factor is
therefore a measure of membrane selectivity. The ability of a membrane to reject solutes depends on a
combination of physico-chemical characteristics of the solute, membrane and water. The properties of the
solute which has the greatest influence on the rejection of species of certain compounds are; Valence,
rejection increases with the charge of the ion, molecular size, rejection increases with the molecular size of
the solute and tendency to the hydrogen bond, the permeability increases with the intensity of the hydrogen
bond. Also, the salt rejection capacity of the membrane decreases with time, which is due to the hydrolysis
of the membrane with loss of bonding points or increase in pore size. 4

3. EXPERIMENTAL

To solve the study case of the membrane selectivity in the reverse osmosis equipment, was first made a
calibration curve, taking the values of the conductivity with respect to known and determined concentrations
before performing the practice. When the calibration curve was ready, we proceeded to take the
measurement of the conductivity of the 160 L water tank where the feed was found which was 177, 9 ms ,
also the conductivity of the retentate tank was taken, this value was 1, 637 ms .Then sodium chloride was
added to the feed water, giving an initial feed conductivity value of 13, 8 ms .

Then several pressure differentials between the retentate current and the permeate current were created to
record the values of the fluxes of the currents and their conductivities. It is known that the pressure of
permeate is the atmospheric pressure which has a value of 0, 7466 atm and from this fact the pressure of the
retained with the flows should be modified, adjusting the corresponding valves.

It was difficult to coordinate the pressure of the retentate because the mass balance was not kept stable at
the exit and the idea was that with each differential pressure several tests were made in different flows. At
the end of the sampling, P = 11 and P = 12 bar.

4. RESULTS
4.1. THEORETICAL RESULTS
For the first part of the practice, a calibration curve has to be set to read the conductivity samples at
the end of the practice to know the concentration of salts in filtered water. Six samples of different
concentration of NaCl are prepared and then conductivity is measured, as a result, 6 measures are
registered in a table to elaborate the calibration curve.

3
(Wankat, 2008)
4
(Sette Ramalho, 1990)
 The second step is calculating the membrane selectivity with equation 15
T R = (Cf Cp/)Cf = 1 (Cp/Cf) (1)
that links the feed concentration of NaCl with the permeate concentration of this salt.
This practice is divided in two sections, the first one in which pressure is changing and the last one
in which the conversion rate is changing, in the first section, the salt concentration feed must be
close to 8 g/L to guarantee a good procedure and lecture of the conductivity meter, moreover, the
valves have to be adjusted to generate the desired difference of pressure. For the last part of the
practice, the conversion rate is the one that is varying, the desired conversion rate is adjusted with
the equation 2.6
Y = (Qp/Qf) (2)

A manual example is going to be developed for a better explanation.

Manual Example.

The calibration curve was implicit in the concentration calculations in the manual example.
Cf(g/L) = 8,66

QR(L/h) 2500 2000 1500 1000 500

QP(L/h) 120 120 115 115 100

CondP(S) 445 462 490 512 599

Cp(g/L) 0,071 0,08 0,094 0,106 0,15

Table 1. Table of the guide example for membrane selectivity
Calculating with equation 2

Y 0,046 0,057 0,071 0,103 0,167

Calculating with equation 1

TR 0,992 0,991 0,989 0,988 0,983

4.2. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

In the laboratory practice, we began with the calibration curve to calculate the concentration of salt
in the retentive and permeate flows, the values of the conductivity in the pre-established
concentrations of the calibration are reported in Table 2 and in Figure 1 the calibration curve is
shown to calculate the membrane selectivity. Tables 3 and 4 below show the results of conductivity
and concentration of currents in a P of 12 and 11 bar measured in the laboratory. These were the
results that could be obtained because of time and logistic issues.

5
(Pignat SAS, 2015)

6
(Terms and Equations of Reverse Osmosis, Hydranautics)
 Concentration (g/L) 4 6 8 10 12 14

Conductivity ( ms) 6,36 9,02 12,30 14,90 17,93 20,5

Table 2. Concentration and conductivity data for the calibration curve

Figure 1. Calibration curve for to calculate the membrane selectivity

P=12 bar
Cond F (mS)= 13,8
Conc F(g/mL)=0,4604374

Sample 1 Sample 2

QR(L/h) 2000 1900

Cond R(mS) 5,96 6,16

Conc R(g/mL) 0,18611966 0,21553534

QP(L/h) 300 350

Cond P(S) 121,9 169

Conc P(g/mL) 0,00426522 0,00591323

TR 0,99073659 0,98715736
Table 3. Reverse Osmosis results with P=12 bar
P=11 bar
Cond F (mS)=13,8
Conc F(g/mL)=0,4604374
Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Sample 4 Sample 5

QR(L/h) 2500 2400 2300 2200 2100

Cond R(mS) 4,46 4,76 4,94 5,34 5,48

Conc R(g/mL) 0,13363541 0,14413226 0,15043037 0,16442617 0,1693247

QP(L/h) 50 100 150 200 250

Cond P(S) 1,454 382 130 325 141

Conc P(g/mL) 0,02656753 0,01273333 0,00433333 0,01108333 0,0047

TR 0,94229936 0,97234514 0,99058867 0,97592869 0,98979231

Table 4. Reverse Osmosis results with P=11 bar

5. RESULTS ANALYSIS

Looking at the tables, the results show a different behavior when we were working with P=12 bar and
P=11 bar. The TR or membrane selectivity was higher when the system was at a pressure of 12 bar
because of physical principles. When the osmotic pressure is overpassed by the systems pressure, the flux
of water gets stronger so when this flux hits and interacts with the reverse osmosis membrane there is
pressure drop that allows the molecules to stick to the systems membrane. Comparing the experimental
results with the theoretical data given by the equipment manual, we obtain that the results have similar
characteristics with the theoretical ones, for example, the concentration rises as well as the conductivity
does.
Electrical conductivity is an inherent property of most materials, and ranges from extremely conductive
materials like metals to highly resistive materials such as polymers or glass. Aqueous solutions, such as sea
water and plating baths exhibit conductivity between these two extremes. In aqueous solutions, the electrical
current is carried by charged ions. The conductivity is determined by the number of charge carriers, how fast
they move, and how much charge each one carries. Hence, for most aqueous solutions, the higher the
concentration of dissolved salts, which will lead to more ions, the higher the conductivity. This effect
continues until the solution gets to a maximum value, after which, the conductivity may actually decrease
with increasing concentration. This can result in two different concentrations of a salt having the same
conductivity. This needs to be considered when using conductivity to determine concentrations of solutions.
Some species ionize more completely in water (strong electrolytes such as NaCl & HCl) than others do, and
their solutions are more conductive as a result(Ionide, 2015)7.
Another example of similarity between the theoretical and experimental results is the directly proportional
behavior between the difference of pressure and the membrane selectivity. In the second table, the results
were a little bit different because of a bad handling of the electrical conductivity meter, as the practice was
developing, the time was running low to take the samples at different differentials of pressure, there was a

7
Taken from http://ionode.com/theory/conductivity-theory
moment in which the electrode was not correctly cleaned and at the moment to measure the electrical
conductivity of the 4th sample this electrode was contaminated and showed an incorrect measure of
conductivity.

The membrane selectivity or rejection rate values of the result at both pressures shows a range of about
0.94 to 0.99, indicating that the product or permeate contains less than the tenth part of the solute
concentration in the feed. Therefore more than 90% of the solute was rejected by the membrane.8 As
established, the mechanism of separation of reverse osmosis, the membrane performs separations at
micromolecular and ionic ranges. Therefore, the pore size of the reverse osmosis membranes have a size of
1.5 103 to 5 104 m . However, this does not indicate that the percentage of selectivity does not
decrease. The working conditions to which the membranes are subjected may decrease their percentage of
selectivity.

The pressure at which the process is carried out is usually high because of the configuration of the
apparatus and the membranes are under a strong mechanical understanding that deforms the pores,
thereby reducing the flow and therefore the yield. Because of some industrial processes where sterilization
is required, the temperature also causes a deterioration of the membrane. As for chemical factors, the
membrane manufacturers generate some resistance to oxidizing agents such as chlorine, iodine, among
others.9

Considering what is stipulated in the literature the membrane of the reverse osmosis equipment has an
optimal functioning, since its selectivity is above 90%. In the form of a recommendation, it is important to
identify when the standard parameters of the equipment change, such as the pressure, flow rate of
permeate and passage of salts is necessary to perform a cleaning. It is acceptable to perform a cleaning
when the variation of the systems is between 10 and 15%.10

6. CONCLUSIONS
The membrane selectivity variates with the systems pressure. Being directly proportional with the
systems pressure
The water purity can be maximized by recirculating the retentate water.
Atmospheric pressure must be taken in count for the pressure difference value. The process is more
expensive in places with atmospheric pressure lower than 1 atm because the pump needs more
energy to impulse the fluid.
The electrical conductivity meter needs to be cleaned out to make a good measure of the sample.
An incorrect usage can derivate in bad measures of conductivity thus wrong concentration
calculations
The lab reverse osmosis equipment membrane has a pretty good membrane selectivity, which
means that is in perfect status to keep developing reverse osmosis practices.

REFERENCES

8
(Sette Ramalho, 1990)

9

(Hernndez, Tejerina, Arribas, Martnez, & Martnez , 1990)

10
(Qumica del agua )
1. AXG MEMBRANE. (s.f.). MDULO COLUMNA DE MEMBRANA DE FIBRA HUECA.
Recuperado el 19 de Febrero de 2017, de AXG MEMBRANE:
http://www.axgmembrane.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Catalogo-Modulo-Columna-Me
mbrana-Fibra-Hueca-WEB.pdf
2. Wankat, P. C. (2008). Ingeniera de procesos de separacin (2 edicin ed.). (R. Fuerte
Rivera, Ed.) Mexico: Pearson.
3. Vian Ortuo, A. (1998). Introduccin a la qumica industrial. (Illustrated, Ed.) Barcelona ,
Espaa: Reverte, S.A. .
4. Sette Ramalho, R. (1990). Tratamiento de aguas residuales. (R. Sette Ramalho, D.
Jimnez Beltrn , & F. de Lora , Trads.) Barcelona, Espaol: Reverte, S.A.
5. Pignat SAS. (2015). OSMOSIS INVERSA OSM/3000. Documentacin tcnica.
6. Hydranautics.(2001).Terms and equations of reverse osmosis.
7. Ionide (2015). Conductivity theory. Taken in 23/07/17 from
http://ionode.com/theory/conductivity-theory
8.
9. Hernndez, A., Tejerina, F., Arribas, J. I., Martnez, L., & Martnez , F. (1990).
Microfiltracin, ultrafiltracin y smosis inversa (3 ed., Vol. IV). Murcia , Espaa:
EDITUM.
10. Qumica del agua . (n.d.). Mantenimiento, limpieza y conservacin. Retrieved 23 de
Febrero de 2017 from Qumica del agua :
http://www.quimicadelagua.com/Documentos/Guia%20desalacion/6.Mantenimiento.pdf