INTRODUCTION

Definition

of MEMBRANE

A thin layer of material in which used to separates two

liquid phases, two gas phases or liquid-gas phases.

Material

of the membrane:

1) Polymeric organic
2) Non polymeric inorganic or liquid
3) Hybrid both organic and inorganic

MEMBRANE SEPARATION
PROCESS PRINCIPLE

TYPE OF filtration IN SEPARATION OF MEMBRANE.

There are two type of filtration occur during separation process which is
cross-flow and dead-end filtration.
In dead-end filtration, essentially all the fluid entering the filter is either
retained by the membrane or emerge as permeate so the conversion can
approach 100%.
In cross-flow filtration, more feed passes past the membrane than passes
through it which mean there little accumulation of retained materials at the
membrane surface.
Thus the filtration conversion is lower than dead end thus recycle permits
higher conversion.

Membrane separations mechanisms

There are 3 different mechanisms by which membrane can perform
separations:

By having holes or pores which are of such a size that certain

species can pass through and others cannot. This mechanism is
called size exclusion.

By selective retardation by the pores when the pore diameters are

close to molecular sizes. This mechanism is called pore flow.

By dissolution into the membrane, migration by molecular

diffusion across the membrane, and re-emergence from the other
side. This is called solution diffusion.

Type of transport

Active transport where the flow that are directed against their conjugated
driving force.

Passive transport where the flow that are directed in the direction of their
conjugated driving force

Carrier mediated transport, where the carrier molecules resides in the

membrane can interact with a given permeate.

Membrane process

The membrane process used a physical barrier which is a porous or semipermeable membrane to separate particle in fluid or gas.
The particles were separated on the basis of their size and shape.
The feed which passed thorough the membrane is called permeate while
retentate is residual that does not passed through the membrane.
The rate at which the permeate flows through the membrane is called the
flux rate.
The effectiveness of the membrane process is depend on the membrane
pore size.

Membrane process were varied in molecular separation size and

driving force expended.
For example:

Pressure driven

Reverse osmosis.
Ultrafiltration.
Microfiltration.

Thermal driven
M

Membrane distillation.

Osmotic driven

Forward osmosis.

Charge driven

Electrodialysis (ion
selective membrane).

TYPE OF EQUIPMENT

MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY:
Microfiltration

Microfiltration (MF) closely resembles conventional coarse filtration

and deals with the separation of particles between 0.1 and 10m,
such as suspended solids (colloids), bacteria and large proteins.
MF is applied for clarification and sterilization purposes, for cell
harvesting, separation of oil-water emulsions, etc.

Ultrafiltration

Ultrafiltration (UF) belongs to the pressure-driven membrane

processes. This technique uses microporous membranes with 1100 nm pore diameters. Such membranes let through small
molecules (water, salts) and adopt the high molecular weight
molecules (polymers, proteins, colloids). Operating pressures are
typically in the range of 1 to 5 bars for cross-flow application. UF
is ideally suited for fractionation, concentration and purification
purposes.

Reverse Osmosis

Reverse Osmosis (RO) is used to separate components of a solution.

It is based on a pressure-driven process, the driving force resulting
from the difference of the electrochemical potential on both sides of
the membrane. Operating pressures can range from 10 bars up to
100 bars. A typical RO application is seawater desalination.

Nanofiltration

Nanofiltration (NF) is a pressure-driven membrane process

which is preferentially used for the recycling of aqueous
solutions. Operating pressures are between 5 and 20 bars.

Equipment for Gas Permeation

Membrane Process
Flat membranes

Mainly used in experiment to characterize the permeability of

the membrane. The modules are easy to fabricate. This type
of membrane has very small membrane area per unit
separator volume.

Hollow-fibre
membranes

This membranes are in the shape of very small diameter hollow

fibres. The inside diameter of the fibres is in the range of 100 to
500m with the length up to 3 to 5 m. Thousands of fine tube
are bound together at each end into a tube sheet that is
surrounded by a metal shell having diameter of 0.1 to 0.2m.

Spiral-wound
membranes

The membrane area per unit separator volume up to 328m2 /m3

and decreases the pressure drop. The assembly consists of a
sandwich of four sheets wrapped around a central core of a
perforated collecting tube

APPLICATION
FOOD AND
BEVERAGE
INDUSTRY
WASTE WATER
TREATMENT

PETROLEUM AND
PETROCHEMICAL

Production of drinking water by reverse

osmosis
Dealcoholization of wine
Ultra/microfiltration help to remove
particles,colloids and micromolecules such as
organic waste, enzymatic or bacteria
decomposition
Petrochemical- Hydrocarbon and nitrogen
recovery from vent stream in polypropylene
production, ethylene oxide and vinyl acetate
monomer production, and polyvinyl chloride
(PVC) production
Natural Gas- Fuel gas conditioning, natural
gas liquid conditioning, recovery/ dew point
control
Refinery and Syngas- Hydrogen purification
and liquid petroleum gas recovery, hydrogen
separation in syngas processes and CO2
removal from syngas

APPLICATION
BIOFUEL

PHARMACEUTICAL

Bioethanol and bio-butanol from

fermentation broth

Antibiotics from fermentation broth

Separation of amoxicilin from
pharmaceutical wastewater by
nanofiltration membrane