Cross-flow membrane filtration

M5
Introduction
Membrane separation equipment allows rapid testing of the different membranes and the effect of
the process parameters on the efficiency of separation. The solution is loaded into a 1- l itre tank and
then fed through a discharge pump with high pressure to provide the necessary pressure for the
reverse osmosis. The unit involve spiral low pattern across the filter surface. It is possible to employ
several types of membranes for this filter. However, the aim of the experiment is to study the effect
of process parameters with single membrane type on the filtration efficiency through conductivity
and resistance coefficient calculation.

Learning Objectives:

 To gain experience using the membrane separation

 To correlate the effect of process parameters with separation efficiency.
 To develop better understanding of the membrane separation principal

Equipment Description

Figure 1. Membrane separation Equipment layout

As shown in Figure 1, the equipment consists of the following components:

1 - Chiller 4 - Pressure gauge (bar) 7 - Pressure rotary valve (V1)

2 - Discharge pump 5 – Temp reader 8 - Drain valve (V2)
3 - Pump switch 6 - Feed vessel 9 - Pump rotary valve ( V3)
 Experimental steps for measuring Membrane efficiency
 Prepare a solution of 2.5, or 5, or 7.5 g concentration of NaCl in 1 litre distilled water. Record
the amount you added in grams and the amount of distilled water (cm 3).
 Stir the solution using a magnetic stir for 5- 10 minutes, then measure the final weight and
record it (W1).
 Using the conductivity meter, measure the conductivity of the prepared solution and record
the conductivity of the solution below in Table 1 (α1).
 At the membrane rig, open the feed vessel and make sure that it is completely dry and
clean. Place the solution inside the feed vessel (7). Then close the feed vessel.
 Before you start the experiment, you need to make sure that the valves marked (V 1, V2) are
in the correct position. Make sure that the drain valve (9) is closed and the turner is 90 ˚ to the
outlet. Check the pump discharge valve behind the feeder tank, make sure that it is fully closed by
turning anti-clockwise. Then make sure that the valve at the top of the membrane is semi-open
before you start.
 Fill the 1 litre tank with the prepared NaCl solution (Prepared in step 1) fill up to 85% of the
vessel and make sure that it is tightly closed as it is a closed loop system and no disturbance should
be present in the environment
 Record the weight of the beaker (W2).
 Open the chiller (1) and set the temperature to 5℃. Wait until both measurements of the
chiller and the thermocouple (5) show the same value.
 Place the beaker below the outlet of the membrane to collect the concentrate from the
bottom of the membrane.
 Turn on the pump and slowly adjust the pressure by rotary valve until it is set to 10 bar.
 Leave the experiment running for 10 minutes then weight the amount of liquid collected at
10 bar and at the specified temperature. Record the weight collected as (W 3).
 Measure the conductivity (α2) of the collected sample (W3). Record the values in the table.
 Repeat the same experiments at two different values of pressure as mentioned in the table,
20 and 30 bar.
 Then repeat the experiment at 10 bar with two different temperatures of 10 and 15 ℃.

Data analysis
Calculation steps

 First step is to prepare different sample of salt concentrations and measure their
conductivity.
 After measuring the conductivity, you are required to draw a calibration curve between salt
concentration and conductivity.
 Using this curve, plot the best fitted regression line on the concentration vs conductivity
curve and obtain the trend line equation.
 Using the trend line equation, obtain the concentration of salt in bulk feed and permeate.
 The major objectives of this experiment is to calculate hydraulic permeability and selectivity,
expressed in terms of salt rejection percentage.
 Measure the flowrate (Q) of the collected filtrate from the membrane unit at a given
pressure.
 Flux is determined by normalizing the measured volumetric flow rate of the permeate by the
surface area of the membrane.
 Once flux is measured at a given pressure, it is required to repeat the flux calculation again.
You need to average the flux values and calculate its standard deviation.
 Using these values of average flux at different operating pressure, plot flux vs operating
pressure as per the generalised flux equation (1):

J= A ( ΔP−Δπ ) (1)

 Slope of the curve will be the hydraulic permeability constant A.

 ΔP is the hydraulic pressure in bar, while Δπ is the osmotic pressure gradient which is the
difference of transmembrane osmotic pressure of bulk feed and permeate.

π=iCRT (2)

Δπ =π b −π p (3)

 The second objective is to calculate the key membrane performance metric is selectivity,
which is often characterized by observed salt rejection percentage implying the percentage of feed
solute retained by membrane.

%R=( 1−C P / Cb ) 100 % (4)

 This experiment demonstrates the trade-off between membrane permeability and

selectivity and determining the impact of operating conditions such as pressure and low rate on
overall membrane performance.

Table 1: Salt concentration vs Conductivity

Concentration
Salt added Water fed (NaCl) Conductivity
Exp.
g L g/L S/cm
W1
W2
W3
W4
W5
W6
Fig 2: Conductivity of NaCl aqueous at various NaCl concentration (sample plot)

Plot concentration (g/L) Vs conductivity (S/cm) and obtain a calibration curve with best-fitted linear
regression line.

Table 2: Normalizing the flux value at each pressures

Experiment P (bar) Q (dm3/s) A (m2) J (dm3/m2s) Jnorm.

1 P1 V1 A J1= V1/A
(J1+J2)/2
2 P1 V2 A J2=V2/A
Table 3. Example of result’s table

P ℿ1 ℿ2 ℿ P-ℿ J
Exp.

bar kg/m2s
1        
2        
3        
4        
5        
6

Formula for calculations:

∆ P−∆ ℿ (5)
J=
( R m+ R c ) μ
J : Membrane flux (kg/m2s)
∆ P : Pressure difference (Pa)
∆ ℿ: Difference in osmotic pressure across the membrane (Pa)
Rm: Resistance of the membrane (-)

Rc : Resistance of the layers deposited on the membrane (-)

μ : Kinematic viscosity (m2/s)

i: Van’t Hoff factor
M : Molar concentration of solution (mole/L)
R: Ideal gas constant
T: temperature (K)

How do you think the total resistance change with changing the
process parameters?