PTT 302 :

DOWNSTREAM
PROCESSING

“Membrane SeparationProcess”

PTT 302/4 DOWNSTREAM PROCESSING

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 WHAT IS AMEMBRANE?
• Membranes are materials
which have voids in them,
letting some molecules pass
more conveniently than some
other molecules.
• Asemi-permeable membrane
is a VERYTHIN film that allows
some types of matter to pass
through while leaving others
behind

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WHAT IS AMEMBRANE?

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CLASSIFICATION OFPARTICLESAND
APPLICABLEFILTRATION PROCESSES

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MEMBRANE CLASSIFICATION

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 HOW SEPARATION OCCURS
Difference in permeabilities through a membrane:
– Difference in size
– Affinity to the membrane
– Diffusivity
– Electrostatic charge

DRIVING FORCES
• Pressure difference
• Temperature difference
• Concentration difference
• Voltage difference PTT 302/4 DOWNSTREAM PROCESSING
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TYPESOFRESISTANCEIN PRESSURE-
DRIVEN SEPARATION

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 MEMBRANE RETENTION
• The retention of a solute by amembrane
primarily depends on
– the solute diameter topore diameter ratio.
– the solute shape,
– solute charge,
– solute compressibility,
– solute-membrane interactions (which depend on
the solution conditions)
– operating conditions (such as cross-flow velocity
and transmembrane pressure).
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 MEMBRANE PERFORMANCE

• The permeate flux in membraneseparation

process determines its productivity
• The permeate flux depends on the:
– properties of the membrane
– properties of the feedsolution
– transmembrane pressure
– solute mass transfer coefficient (which affects the
concentration polarization).
– membrane fouling

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 CONCENTRATIONPOLARIZATION
• the retained macromolecules
accumulate near the
membrane surface caused
concentration polarization.
• At steady state, a stable
concentration gradient exists
near the membrane owing to
back diffusion of solute from
the membrane surface.
• offers extra hydraulic
resistance to the flow of
solvent
• development of osmotic
pressure which acts against
the applied transmembrane
pressure
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 CONCENTRATIONPOLARIZATION
• At lower values of
transmembrane pressure,
the permeate flux increases
linearly with increase in
pressure
• However, as the pressure is
further increased, there is
deviation from the solvent
profile, this being due to
concentration polarization.
• At very high transmembrane
pressures, the permeate flux
usually plateaus off, clearly
suggesting the formation of a
gel layer.

• Beyond this point, increasing the transmembrane pressure has a negligible

effect on the permeate flux
• This value of permeate flux being referred toas the limiting flux (Jlim).
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 ADVANTAGES
• Continuous separation
• Low energy requirement
• Meet various separation demands

DISADVANTAGES
• Fouling
• Service periods

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Membrane material
•Membranes may be composed of natural (e.g
modified natural cellulose polymers ) or synthetic
polymers (plastic materials) or inorganic ceramic
materials
 be good film formers,
 manage high permeate flows,
 have high selectivity,
 have good chemical and bacteriological
resistance,
 be resistant to detergents and disinfectants,
 be inexpensive.

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Membrane Configurations / modules

This refers to the packing of the membrane in

the module so that it can be installed in the
system.

Common configurations include:

•Plate and frame
•Tubular
•Spirally wound
•Hollow fine fibre

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Flat membranes

• Mainly used to fabricate andused

• In some cases modules are stacked together like a
multilayer sandwich or plate-and-frame filter press
• Three basic structures are commonly uses for membranes:
- homogeneous (no significant variation in porediameter
from the filtering surface to the other side)
-asymmetric (has a thin layer next to the filteringsurface
that has very pores)
-composite (containing very small pores next to the
filtering surface)

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 Plate and frame design
•Membrane sandwiched between membrane
support plates which are arranged in stacks
similar to a plate heat exchanger

•Typically polymers (e.g polyethersulfone)

with polypropylene or polyolefinsupport

•UF (<1 to 1000 kDaMWCO)

• MF (0.1 to 0.16 um diameter)

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Plate and frame
membrane systems

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waste water system

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TUBULAR
ihatag pa ni
Roda
Spiral wound membranes

• Constructed from flat sheet membranes separated byspacer

screens
• Consists of a sandwich of four sheets wrapped around acentral
core of a perforated collecting tube
• The four sheets consist of a
i) top sheet of an open separator grid for feed channel
ii) a membrane
iii) a porous felt backing for the permeatechannel
iv) another membrane
• The feed solution is fed into one end of the module and flows
through the separator screens along the surface of the
membranes
• The retentate is the collected in the other end of themodule
• The permeate spirals radially inward, eventually to becollected
through a centraltube PTT 302/4 DOWNSTREAM PROCESSING
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Spiral-wound elements and assembly
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spiral-wound membrane - crosssection

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3. Hollow-fiber membranes
• The membranes are in the shapeof
very-small-diameter hollow fibers
• Typically, the high-pressure feed
enters the shell side at one endand
leaves at the other end
• The hollow fibers are closed at one
end of the tubebundles
Hollow-fiber separator assembly.
• The permeate solution inside the
fibers flows countercurrent to the
shell-side flow and is collected in a
chamber where the open ends of the
fibers terminate
• Then the permeate exits the device

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Comparison of membrane module

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 Membrane filtration applications
•Reverse osmosis (RO)
Concentration of solution by removal of water

•Nanofiltration (NF)
Concentration of organic components by removal
of part of monovalent ions like sodium and chlorine
(partial demineralisation)

•Ultrafiltration (UF)
Concentration of large and macro molecules

•Microfiltration (MF)
Removal of bacteria, separation of
macromolecules PTT 302/4 DOWNSTREAM PROCESSING
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 Purification

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 OSMOSIS
•Pure water flows from a dilute solution
through a semipermeable membrane
(water permeation only) to a higher
concentrated solution
•Rise in volume to equilibrate the
pressure (osmotic pressure)

REVERSEOSMOSIS
•If pressure greater than the osmotic
pressure is applied to the high
concentration the direction of waterflow
through the membrane can bereversed.

Osmotic pressure- P required to equalize the solvent activities if pure

solvent is on one side of membrane PTT 302/4 DOWNSTREAM PROCESSING
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 REVERSEOSMOSIS
• only remove some suspended materials larger than 1
micron
• The normal transmembrane pressure range in ROis
from 200 to 300psig.
• the process eliminates the dissolved solids, bacteria,
viruses and other germs contained in the water
• only water molecules allowed to pass via verybig
pressure
• almost all membranes are made polymers, cellulosic
acetate and matic polyamide types rated at 96%-
99+% NaCl rejection

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 REVERSEOSMOSIS
• extensive applications:
– Prepare pure water from dilute aqueoussolutions
– Purify organic solvent
– potable water from sea or brackishwater
– ultrapure water for food processing andelectronic
industries
– water for chemical, pulp & paper industry

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 NANOFILTRATION
Relatively recent membrane
filtration process used most
often with low total dissolved
solids water such as surface
water and fresh groundwater,
with the purpose of softening
(polyvalent cation removal) and
removal of disinfection by-
product precursors such as
natural organic matter and
synthetic organic matter.

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 NANOFILTRATION
• Range between UF and RO membranes
• the mass transfer mechanism is diffusion &
separate small molecules from the solution
(assymmetric)

• cellulosic acetate and aromatic polyamide type

membranes (salt rejections; 95% for divalent salts
to 40% for monovalent salts)

• can typically operate at higher recoveries;

conserving total water usage due to alower
concentrate stream flow rate.
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 NANOFILTRATION
• typical applications:
– desalination of food, dairy and beverage productsor
byproducts
– partial desalination of whey, UF permeate or
retentate asrequired
– desalination of dyes and optical brighteners
– purification of spent clean-in-place (CIP)chemicals
– color reduction or manipulation of food products
– concentration of food, dairy and beverageproducts
or byproducts
– fermentation byproduct concentration

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 ULTRAFILTRATION
Is a variety of membrane filtration in
which hydrostatic pressure forces aliquid
against a semi permeable membrane.

Suspended solids and solutes of high

molecular weight are retained, while
water and low molecular weightsolutes
pass through the membrane.

This separation process is used in industry

and research for purifying and
concentrating macromolecular (103 - 106
Da) solutions, especially protein
solutions. PTT 302/4 DOWNSTREAM PROCESSING
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 ULTRAFILTRATION
• has smaller pores than microfiltration membranes
• driving force → pressure differential (2-10 bars to 25-30
bars)
• used to separate species with pore sizes 10-1000 Å(103-0.1
microns)
• Can be obtained down to a molecular weight cutoff(MWCO)
level of 1000 Daltons (Da) and up to as high as 1 000 000Da.
• AMWCO value of 10 kDa means that the membrane can
retain from a feed solution 90% of the molecules having
molecular weight of 10kDa.
• Ultrafiltration separates solutes in the molecularweight
range of 5 kDa to 500 kDa. UF membranes have pores
ranging from 1 to20 nm in diameter.
• Asymmetric - - membrane in which the pore size and
structure vary from one side of the membrane to the other;
the pores are small
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 ULTRAFILTRATION
• wide range of applications:
– oil emulsion waste treatment
– treatment of whey in dairyindustries
– concentration of biological macromolecules
– electrocoat paint recovery
– concentration of textile sizing
– concentration of heat sensitive proteins for food
additives

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 MICROFILTRATION
Is a filtration process which removes
contaminants from a fluid (liquid & gas) by
passage through a microporous membrane

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 MICROFILTRATION

• a sterile filtration with pores 0.1-10.0microns

• micro-organisms cannot pass through them
• operated at low pressuredifferences
• used to filter particles.

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 MICROFILTRATION

• wide array of applications:

– sterile water for pharmaceuticalindustry
– food & beverages
– chemical industry
– microelectronics industry
– fermentation
– laboratory/analytical uses

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SUMMARY

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Factors affecting membrane performance
Concentration polarisation
 Differential solute concentration between
membrane surface and bulk stream
 Reversibly affected by operation parameters

Fouling
 Formation of deposits
 Irreversibly affected by operation parameters

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2 types membrane fouling
 Surface (temporary) fouling
• Foulant appears an evenly deposited layer on themembrane
surface
•Can be easily removed by cleaningsolution
•Permeation rate of membrane can be regeneratedby
cleaning
•Most common type of fouling in UF plant
•Most studies dealt with this type of fouling

 Pore (permanent) fouling

•Particulate matter diffuses into themembrane
•Could be caused by the poor quality of the cleaning water
•Flux cannot be regenerated bycleaning
•Determines the lifetime of themembrane
•Received much less attention in literature

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 Implications of membrane fouling
•More energy consumption
•Duration of continuous operation withoutneed
for cleaning
•Membrane durability
•Properties and quality of concentrate
•Overall economy of the membraneprocess

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PROBLEM
SOLVING (by
YVES)
PRECIPITATION
(by RIZ)
The End

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