RESULT

Time (min) Weight of Permeates (g)

Membrane 1 Membrane 2 Membrane 3 Membrane 4
Max P=18 Max P=12 Max P=10 Max P=8.5
1 37.05 62.78 24.41 89.93
2 65.92 113.56 35.00 162.32
3 89.21 165.36 44.23 234.64
4 112.18 215.03 54.99 305.72
5 134.90 266.26 62.28 374.20
6 150.32 317.74 70.54 445.32
7 180.99 369.74 78.50 518.64
8 203.42 420.53 86.16 590.78
9 227.73 472.63 93.26 666.87
10 250.96 523.84 100.43 740.22
SAMPLE OF CALCULATION

Weight of permeates (g) against time (s)

800

700
Weight of permeates (g)

600

500

400

300

200

100

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Time (s)

Membrane 1 Membrane 2 Membrane 3 Membrane 4

Graph 1
PROCEDURE

a) General start-up procedure

1. Make sure all the valve are initially closed
2. A sodium chloride solution was prepared by adding 100 gram of sodium chloride into
20 liter of water.
3. The feed tank was filled up with salt solution prepared in step 2. The feed shall always
be maintained at room temperature.
4. The power for control panel was switch on. All sensors and indicators were checked
for functioning properly.
5. The thermostat was switched on and make sure the thermo oil level was above the coil
inside thermostat. Thermostat connections was checked so that they are properly fitted.

b) Experiment procedure
1. The general start-up procedure was performed.
2. The experiment for Membrane 1 was started. Valves V2, V5, V7, V11 and V15 were
opened.
3. The plunger pump (P1) was switched on and slowly close valve V5 to set the maximum
working pressure at 20 bars. The pressure value at pressure gauge and the pressure
regulator was observed and adjusted to 20 bars.
4. Valve V5 was opened. Then, membrane maximum inlet pressure was set to 18 bars for
Membrane 1 by adjusting the retentate control valve (V15).
5. The system was allowed to run for 5 minutes. The sample was start to collect from
permeate sampling port and the sample was weight using digital weighing balance.
The weight of permeates was recorded every 1 minute for 10 minutes.
6. Step 1 to 5 was repeated for Membrane 2, 3 and 4. Open and close the respective sets
of valves and the membrane maximum inlet pressure was adjusted for every membrane.

Membrane Open Valves Sampling Valves Retentate Control Membrane

(step 2) Valve maximum inlet
pressure (bar)
1 V2,V5,V7,V11 Open V19 and V15 18
and V15 close V11
2 V2,V5,V8,V12 Open V20 and V16 12
and V16 close V12
 3 V2,V5,V9,V13 Open V21 and V17 10
and V17 close V13
4 V2,V5,V10,V14 Open V22 and V18 8.5
and V18 close V14
7. The graph of permeate weight versus time was plotted.
ABSTRACT

The objective of this membrane separation experiment is to study characteristics based on 4

different types of membrane which are AFC99 (polyamide film), AFC 40 (polyamide film),
CA 202 (cellulose acetate) and FP 100 (PVDF). This 4 membrane has difference pore size by
separation driving force is namely as reverse osmosis (RO), nanofiltration (NF), ultrafiltration (UF) and
microfiltration (MF) membranes. The experiment was conducted by Membrane Test unit model
TR14 and using sodium chloride solution. The pressure for each membrane was set-up
differently at maximum pressure which is 18 bar, 12 bar, 10 bar, 8.5 bar for Membrane 1,
Membrane 2, Membrane 3 and Membrane 4. For each type of membrane use, the permeate
sample was weight for every 1 minutes until it reach 10 reading. The the lowest is about 24.41 g
that is membrane 3 and the highest amount of permeate during 10 minutes is 740.22 g that is for
membrane 4. Graph weight of permeate versus time was plotted in Graph 1. Based on the graph, the
weight of permeate increases as the time increases. The line increases gradually for membrane 4. The
experiment was carried out successfully.
INTRODUCTION

In process industries, the membrane separation is an important process in this industries.

The membrane acts as semipermeable barrier that control the rate of the movement of various
molecules between two liquid phase, two gas phases, or a liquid and a gas phase in this process.
The properties of the two fluid phase is usually miscible and the hydrodynamic flow of the
fluid will be disturb by the membrane barrier.

Membrane Separation Unit has been designed to demonstrate the techniques of

membrane separations which are becoming highly popular as they provide effective separation
without the use of heating energy as in distillation processes. There are two type of basic
models for mass transfer at membrane which are the solution-diffusion model and
the hydrodynamic model. In real process, both transport mechanisms occur side by side
expecially during the ultra-filtration. The selective separation of certain individual substances
or substance mixtures is depending on the type of membrane. In the industries, the application
of membrane separation are include drinking water by Reverse Osmosis (RO), filtrations in the
food industry, the recovery of organic vapors such as gasoline vapor recovery and the
electrolysis for chlorine production.

SOLTEQ Membrane Test Unit (Model : TR 14) was used as the equipment or device
to run this experiment. This equipment was design to demonstrate the techinuque of membrane
separations and characteristics based on 4 different types of membrane which are AFC99
(polyamide film), AFC 40 (polyamide film), CA 202 (cellulose acetate) and FP 100 (PVDF).
Membrane separation produce very effective separation without use of heat energy in
distillation process. Heat sensitive materials be separated or concentrated by virtue of their
molecular weights. For example is fruit juices. The equipment consist of a test module with
four type of membrane has difference pore size by separation driving force is namely as reverse
osmosis (RO), nanofiltration (NF), ultrafiltration (UF) and microfiltration (MF) membranes.
 Figure 1 Comparison four type of membrane

This self- contained unit on a mobile epoxy coated steel framework, it requires only
connection to a suitable electricity supply and a normal cold water supply to be fully
operational. It consists of a feed tank, a product tank, a feed pump, a pressure regulator, a water
bath, and a membrane test module. All parts in contact with the process fluid ate stainless steel,
PTFE, silicone rubber or nitrile rubber.

The unit comes with a high pressure feed pump for delivering the feed to the membrane
unit at the desired flow rate and pressure. The retentate line can be either returned to the feed
tank or straight to the drain. Appropriate sensors for flow, pressure and temperature are
installed at strategic locations for process monitoring and data acquisitions.
OBJECTIVE

To determine characteristics based on four different types of membrane.

THEORY

The membrane technology is widely used in transport of substances between two

fractions with the help of permeable membranes for separation of liquid or gaseous streams in
the industries. Membrane technology are available in various separation capabilities. The
application of membrane separation are removal of turbidity, precursors, microorganism
relating to underground, surface water supplies and other. In this experiment, SOLTEQ
Membrane Test Unit (Model: TR 14) has been designed to demonstrate the technique of
membrane separations. This technique is a popular technique in distillation process,
sublimation or crystallization as they provided effective separation without the use of heating
energy. Process industry and biotechnology use this type of membrane separation widely.

The equipment consist of a test module with four type of membrane has difference
pore size by separation driving force is namely as reverse osmosis (RO), nanofiltration (NF),
ultrafiltration (UF) and microfiltration (MF) membranes. This unit have four different types of
membrane which are AFC99 (polyamide film) for Membrane 1, AFC 40 (polyamide film) for
Membrane 2, CA 202 (cellulose acetate) for Membrane 3 and FP 100 (PVDF) for Membrane
4.

Reverse osmosis (RO) is a membrane-technology filtration method that removes large

molecules and ions from solutions by applying pressure to the solution when it is on one side
of a selective membrane. This cause the solute stay on the pressurized side of the membrane
while the pure solvent is allowed to pass to the other side. This membrane should not allow
large molecules or ions through the pores (holes), but should allow smaller components of the
solution (such as the solvent) to pass freely to be selective.

The process of water purification that remove contaminates from the water to produce
clean, clear and pure water is describe as nanofiltration which also a form of reverse osmosis.
This nanofiltration will eliminate bivalent hardness, calcium, and magnesium plus sulphate but
leave in most of the single valent sodium ion.

Ultrafiltration use membrane with pore sizes in the range of 0.1 to 0.001 micron to
perform it separation process. The ultrafiltration will remove high molecular-weight substances,
colloidal materials, and organic and inorganic polymeric molecules but do not removed low
molecular-weight organics and ions such as sodium, calcium, magnesium chloride, and sulfate.
This occur because of the osmotic pressure differential across the membrane surface is
negligible. Low applied pressures are therefore sufficient to achieve high flux rates from an
ultrafiltration membrane. The amount of permeate produced per unit area of membrane surface
per unit time is called as the flux of a membrane.

Microfiltration is a membrane technical filtration process which removes contaminants

from a fluid (liquid and gas) by passage through a microporos membrane. The pore size range
of typical microfiltration membane is 0.1 to 10 micrometer (µm). The microfiltration is
different from nanofiltration and reverse osmosis as those system forcing water to flow from
low pressure to high pressure while microfiltration does not need to include the pressure
although it can use a pressurized system.

Figure 2 Type of membrane use for separation

APPARATUS

a) SOLTEQ Membrane Test Unit (Model: TR 14)

b) Digital weight balance

Digital weight
balance
c) Control panel

d) Pressure gauge and the pressure regulator

e) Retentate Control Valve

f) Sampling valve
DISCUSSION

SOLTEQ Membrane Test Unit (Model: TR 14) has been designed to demonstrate the
technique of membrane separations is experiment. The reverse osmosis (RO), nanofiltration
(NF), ultrafiltration (UF), and microfiltration (MF) membrane was used for this experiment
and its characteristic was studied. The weight of permeate collected and recorded as the sodium
chloride was pump from feed tank and pass through each membrane for every 1 minutes until
it reach ten reading.

Initially, the experiment is started for membrane 1 at 18 bar. After 10 minutes, the
weight of permeate is 250.96 g. For membrane 2, the pressure was decrease to 12 bar and the
weight of permeate collected for 10 minutes is 523.84 g. The pressure was set-up for 10 bar for
membrane 3 and the weight of permeate is 100.43 g in 10 minutes. Lowest pressure was set for
membrane 4 which is only 8.5 bar and highest permeate is recorded for about 740.22 g. This is
because membrane use microfiltration which can operate without include pressure. Thus,
membrane 4 has highest flux of a membrane.

From the plotted graph in Graph 1, the weight of permeate increases as the time
increases. The line increases gradually for membrane 4 which also has the highest weight of
permeates in 10 minutes follow by membrane 2, membrane 1 and membrane 3. Thus, the
experiment is successfully conducted.
CONCLUSION

For conclusion, the weight of permeate of each membrane is different because the
maximum inlet pressure is different. The highest amount of permeate at product in 10 minutes
is 740.22 g in membrane 4 while the lowest weight of permeate is 100.43 g in membrane 3 for
10 minutes. From the Graph 1, each types of membrane give the same pattern but only and
value of permeate is different and cause the different slope in the graph for each membrane.
Therefore, this shows that the separation process was the fastest in the forth membrane and the
third membrane was the slowest. For the graph, as the time increase the weight of permeate
increse. Therefore, this experiment achieved it objective and successfully carried out.

RECOMMENDATION

There are some recommendation to improve the result of the experiment which are
check all equipment is in good condition so that the flow of the experiment does not disturb by
the inconstant data. Next, make sure all the valves are correctly controlled to avoid random
errors. Then, the weight of permeate should repeated two or three time and calculate the
average to get more accurate reading. Besides, the system must reach steady state which the
system must run more than 5 minutes so the reading of the data will show higher accuracy. The
weight of permeates must be recorded at the approximate time to avoid inaccuracy.
REFERENCE

1. Geankoplis, C.J. (2003). Transport Processes and Separation Process Principle, 4th
Edition. New York: Prentice Hall
2. Chemical Engineering Laboratory Manual. (CHE 504), Faculty of Chemical
Engineering, UiTM Shah Alam.
3. Retrieve on 9 May 2018. http://synderfiltration.com/learning-
center/articles/membranes/membrane-processes/
4. Retrieve on 9 May 2018, Ortiz, E.L. http://www.thermopedia.com/content/948/
5. Retrieve on 8 May 2018.
https://www.egr.msu.edu/~hashsham/courses/ene806/docs/Membrane%20Filtration.p
df
ABSTRACT

a) Pump

b) Valve