Membrane Technology

Submitted by:-
Rajan sigdel
ID.No:-RA1812036010016
M.tech(FSQM)-(2018-20)
1st Semester
Introduction

Membranes have gained an important place in chemical technology and are being
used increasingly in a broad range of applications. The property that is exploited
in every application is the ability of a membrane to control the permeation of a
chemical species in contact with it. The separation, purification , and
concentration of molecular mixtures are major problems in the chemical
industries. Efficient separation processes also needed to obtain high-grade
products in the food dairy and pharmaceutical industries, to supply communities
and industry with high quality water, and to remove or recover toxic or valuable
components from industrial effluents. For this task a multitude of separation
techniques such as distillation, crystallization, extraction, precipitation,
adsorption, and ion exchange are used today. Recently, these conventional
separation methods have been developed and supplemented by a family of
processes that utilize semipermeable membranes as separation barriers.
Membranes technology and membrane processes were first introduced as an
analytical tool in chemical and biomedical laboratories, and they developed very
rapidly into food industries and industrial products and methods with significant
technical and commercial impact. Today, membranes are used on widely in large
scale to produce potable water from seawater, for the production of
concentrated milk, to clean industrial effluents and recover valuable constituents,
purify, to concentrate, or fractionate macromolecular mixtures in the food, dairy
and drug industries, and to separate vapors and gases. The membranes used in
the various applications differ widely in their structure, properties of raw
material, their function, and the way they are operated in a separation process.
However, all membrane processes and membranes share several features that
make them particularly attractive tools for the separation of molecular mixtures.
The separation is performed by physical means at ambient temperature without
chemically altering the constituents and properties. Furthermore, membrane
properties can be adjusted to specific separation tasks, and membrane processes
are often technically simpler and more energy efficient than other conventional
separation techniques and are equally well suited for production of large-scale
continuous operations and as for batchwise treatment of very small quantities.
 A key properties of membranes is its permselectivity, which is determine by
differences in the transport rate of various components through the membranes.
The transport rate of a component through a membrane is determined by the
size of the permeating component, by the structure of the membrane, by the
chemical nature and the electrical charge of the membrane material and
permeating component, and by the driving force due to the chemical or
electrochemical potential gradients, that is, concentration pressure and electrical
potential differences. Some driving forces such as concentration, pressure, and
temperature gradients act equally on all components, in contrast to an electrical
potential as driving force, which is only effective with charged components. The
use of different membrane structures and driving forces has resulted in a number
of rather different membrane processes such as reverse osmosis, micro- and
ultrafiltration, dialysis, electrodialysis, gas separation, and so on.

Definition

A membrane is a physical barrier that gives, or at least helps, the separation of

the components in a mixture. Membrane processes are not based in
thermodynamic equilibrium but based in the different transport rate of each
species through the membrane. In the most general sense a membrane can be
described as a barrier that separates two different regions and controls the
exchange of energy, matter, and information between the regions in a very
specific way. The term ‘‘membrane’’ describes two very different types, that is,
synthetic membranes, which are man-made and biological membranes, which
are part of a living organism. Biological membranes carry out very complex and
specific transport tasks in living organisms. They accomplish them efficiently,
quickly, and with minimal energy expenditure, often utilizing carrier-facilitated
and active transport takes place to a chemical reaction. In practical separation
process biological membranes have no significance today. Synthetic membranes
are not much complex in their structure or function as biological membranes.
They are usually less selective, suitable and energy-efficient but have significantly
higher thermal, chemical, and mechanical stability.
The more widely used membrane operations are those based in applying a
pressure difference between both sides of the membrane.

Although similar in appearance the involve mechanism in separation is very very

different. As they are

Microfiltration (MF)

Ultrafiltraion(UF)

Nanofiltration(NF)

Reverseosmosis(RO)
 Simple scheme of membrane module

Materials and Structures of Synthetic Membranes

Synthetic membrane shows a large variety in their physical structure and the
materials they are made from. They can be classified into four groups based on
their structure;

 Porous membranes
 Homogeneous solid membranes .
 Solid membranes carrying electrical charges.
 Liquid or solid films containing selective carriers.

Symmetric and Asymmetric Membranes

As indicated earlier synthetic membranes have a symmetric or an asymmetric

structure. In a symmetric membrane the structure and the transport properties
are identical over the entire cross section, and the thickness of the entire
membrane determines the flux. Symmetric membranes are used today mainly in
electrodialysis and dialysis. In asymmetric membranes structural and transport
properties vary all over the membrane cross section. An asymmetric membrane
consists of a 0.1 – 1 micrometer thick ‘‘skin’’ layer on a highly porous 100 – 200
micrometer thick substructure.The membrane material are Polymers, ceramics
glass, metal, liquid.

Porous Membranes

A porous structure represents a very simple form of a membrane, which closely

identical to the conventional fiber filter as far as the mode of separation is
concerned. These membranes consist of a solid matrix with defined pores or
holes which have diameters ranging from less than 1 nm to more than 10
micrometer

Homogeneous Membranes

A homogeneous membrane is merely a dense film through which a mixture of

molecules is transported by a concentration, pressure, or electrical potential
gradient. The separation of the various components of a mixture is directly
depended to their transport rates within the membrane phase, which is
determined by their diffusivities and concentrations inside the membrane matrix.
Therefore, homogeneous membrane are refer to as solution – diffusion-type
membranes

Ion-Exchange Membranes

Films carrying charged groups are refer to as ion-exchange membranes. They

consist of highly swollen gels carrying fixed negative or positive charges. The
preparation procedures and properties of ion-exchange membranes are closely
related to those of ion-exchange resins. There are two different types of ion-
exchange membranes: -

1) Cation-exchange membranes:- which contain negatively charged groups fixed

to the polymer matrix

2) Anion-exchange membranes:-which contain positively charged groups fixed to

the polymer matrix.

In a cation-exchange membrane, the fixed anions are in electrical equilibrium with

mobile cations in the interstices of the polymer. In contrast, the movable anions
are more or less completely excluded from the cation-exchange membrane
because of their electrical charge, which is identical to that of the fixed ions. Due
to the exclusion of the anions, a cation-exchange membrane permits transfer of
cations only. Anion-exchange membranes are carrying positive charges fixed on
the polymer matrix. Therefore, they are permeable only to anions and they
exclude all cation.

Liquid Membranes

Liquid membranes are mainly used in combination with the so-called facilitated
transport which is based on ‘‘carriers’’ which transport certain components likely
such as metal ions selectively across the liquid membrane interphase. Generally,
there is no problem to form a thin fluid film. Two different techniques are widely
used today for the preparation of liquid membrane. In the first, the selective
liquid barrier material is stabilized as a thin film by a surfactant in an emulsion-
type mixture. In the second, a porous structure is filled with the liquid membrane
phase. Both types of membranes are used today on a pilot-plant scale for the
selective removal of heavy metal ions or certain organic solvents from industrial
waste streams.

Fixed-Carrier Membranes

Fixed-carrier membranes consist of a porous or homogeneous structure with

functional groups which selectively transport certain chemical compounds. Fixed-
carrier membranes may have a symmetric or asymmetric structure depending on
their application. They are largely used today, for example, in co- and
countercurrent transport and in the separation of alkane – alkene mixtures.
Fig;-RO Membrane

Advantages

 Energy savings.:- As there is no phase change the energy consumption by is very

low

 Low temperature operation:-Almost all processing operation proceed at room

temperature, thus they can deal with compounds that are not resistant at high
temperatures.

 Recovery:-Both the concentrate and the permeate can be recovered to use.

 Water reuse:-When applied to recover water, they avoid the transport of large
water volumes and permit the reduction of the Chemical Oxygen Demand loading
in sewage plants.

 Compact operation:- Which permits to save floor space .

 Easy scale-up. They are designed in modules, which can be easily connected.

 Automatic operation. The most of the membrane plants are managed by expert
automatic system
 Tailored systems. In different cases, the membranes and systems can be
specifically designed according the problem.

Disadvantages

 High cost. Membranes (and associated systems) are expensive, but for low
selective separations.

 Lack of selectivity. In many cases, the separation factor are still insufficient.

 Low fluxes. The permeate flow rate available are still too low for multiutility
applications.

 Sensitive to chemical attack. Many materials can be damaged by acids, organic

solvents or oxidants.

 Lack of mechanical resistance. Many materials do not withstand abrasion, high

temperatures, vibrations or pressures.