Separation of monoclonal IgM antibodies using tangential flow ultrafiltration

Experimental results are presented for the separation of monoclonal IgM antibodies from hybridoma cell cultures using tangential flow ultrafiltration with total recycle of the retentate. IgM antibodies are pentameric immunoglobulin molecules with a molar mass of 900 kDa and a tip-to-tip distance of 38 nm. The major impurity (foulant) in the supernatant sample was albumin, whose molar mass and diameter are 67 kDa and 7 nm, respectively. The antibody (product) recovery rate, variations in the permeation velocity and the time for a 90%-reduction in feed volume were investigated using 100 and 300 kDa NMWCO membranes at three transmembrane pressures and two tangential velocities. A model is also presented, in which the ultrafiltration process is divided into two regimes: the surface fouling regime (characterized by the adsorption of antibody molecules on the membrane surface) and the internal fouling regime (characterized by pore-blockage due to deposition of foulant protein molecules). Approximately 16% of the effective membrane area was blocked in the surface fouling regime. The model predictions are in satisfactory agreement with the experimental results.     

Synergistic behavior between silica and alginate: Novel approach for removing silica scale from RO membranes

The formation of mineral scale deposits on membranes is a pervasive and expensive problem for the water treatment industry. A series of experiments run on a laboratory-scale reverse osmosis membrane system examined the fouling of membranes when the feed water was spiked with organic and inorganic foulants. Alginic acid was used as the organic foulant and silica was used as the inorganic foulant. Studies involving interactions of these two foulants have not previously been reported in literature. Experiments were run with each foulant individually to characterize fouling at different velocities and pressures. Experiments were then run using both foulants together to characterize the synergistic effects on membrane fouling. One set of experiments with both foulants demonstrated that alginic acid inhibits silica fouling on reverse osmosis membranes. Further experiments indicated that alginic acid added after silica fouling had already occurred was able to remove silica scale from the membrane and restore permeate flux.     

Interactions controlling biopolymer fouling of reverse osmosis membranes

Laboratory experiments and model calculations were performed to elucidate the fundamental interactions that control organic fouling in reverse osmosis (RO) processes. Bovine serum albumin and alginic acid were selected as model aquatic organic macromolecules (organic foulants). An extended Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) characterization analysis was used to elucidate mechanisms of organic matter fouling on a commercial, polyamide composite RO membrane. Surface tension parameters derived from contact angle analyses are used to demonstrate that the apparent thermodynamic stability of macromolecules determines and adhesive free energy between membranes and macromolecules explained the observed differences in flux decline. Further, foulant–membrane and foulant–foulant interfacial forces helped explain why hydrophilic macromolecules formed polarization layers causing minimal flux decline, while hydrophobic macromolecules formed gel (or cake) layers that led to severe flux decline.     

On the inevitability of non-uniform foulant deposition within a catalyst pellet

The series pore model has been used to investigate the interaction of pore structure and foulant deposit geometries during the deposition of a foulant     

Preparation of macroreticular anion exchange membrane and its behavior relating to organic fouling

Base membranes were prepared by coating a monomer mixture consisting of styrene–divinylbenzene–polybutadiene–t-amyl alcohol onto a polypropyrene cloth and subsequently by polymerizing the monomers. The resultant base membranes were chloromethylated and then quaternized. Thus, macroreticular anion exchange membranes were prepared and their properties were investigated. Furthermore, the organic fouling of the membranes was studied by using Na dodecylbenzenesulfonate as a foulant. The resistibility of the membranes was dependent on the balance between the porosity of the membranes and the foulant quantity.     

Effect of surface‐modifying macromolecules and membrane morphology on fouling of polyethersulfone ultrafiltration membranes

Polyethersulfone (PES) ultrafiltration (UF) membranes with and without surface‐modifying macromolecules (SMMs) were prepared and characterized in terms of the mean pore size and pore‐size distribution, surface porosity, and pore density. The results demonstrated that both the mean pore size and the molecular weight cutoff (MWCO) of the SMM‐modified membranes are lower than those of the corresponding unmodified ones. Membrane fouling tests with humic acid as the foulant indicated that the permeate flux reduction of the SMM‐modified membranes was much less than that of the unmodified ones. Therefore, fouling was more severe for the unmodified membranes. Moreover, the dry weight of the humic acid deposited on the membrane surface was considerably higher for the unmodified membranes. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 88: 3132–3138, 2003     

Fouling-resistant polymer brush coatings

A major problem to be addressed with thin composite films used in processes such as coatings or water purification is the biofouling of the surface. To address this problem in a model system, functionalized polyaramide membranes containing an atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) initiator were synthesized as a versatile approach to easily modify the surface properties of the polyaramide. Poly(methacrylic acid) brushes were grown using surface initiated ATRP followed by the functionalization of the poly(methacrylic acid) brushes with different side-chains chosen to reduce adhesion between the membrane and foulant. The relation between membrane fouling and the physicochemical properties of the surface was investigated in detail.     

Investigating protein crossflow ultrafiltration mechanisms using interfacial phenomena

Protein separation mechanisms by a crossflow ultrafiltration membrane process are investigated using interfacial phenomena analysis of protein–protein and protein–membrane interactions. Varying operating conditions are used and membrane morphological parameters like hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity obtained from contact angle measurement. A single protein solution of bovine serum albumin (BSA) or ovalbumin (OV) or lysozyme (LY) is used in each filtration study case under various operating conditions, such as pH, ionic strength, and different polyethersulfone (PES) membranes with varying surface hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity. Under these conditions analyse of protein–membrane interfacial phenomena and protein separation filtration mechanisms are undertaken. Results indicate that electrostatic forces play an important role in protein deposition on the membrane surface and the rate of protein transmission across the membrane. Findings show that, at the proteins isoelectric point (pI), a hydrophobic membrane causes severe protein adsorption to the membrane surface, allowing a very small percentage of protein to be transported to the permeate side.     

Membrane fouling and chemical cleaning in water recycling applications

Fouling and subsequent chemical cleaning are two important issues for sustainable operation of nanofiltration (NF) membranes in water treatment and reuse applications. Fouling strongly depends on the feed water quality, especially the nature of the foulants and ionic composition of the feed water. Consequently, appropriate selection of the chemical cleaning solutions can be seen as a critical factor for effective fouling control. In this study, membrane fouling and chemical cleaning under condition typical to that in water recycling applications were investigated. Fouling conditions were achieved over approximately 18 h with foulant cocktails containing five model foulants namely humic acids, bovine serum albumin, sodium alginate, and two silica colloids in a background electrolyte solution. These model foulants were selected to represent four distinctive modes of fouling: humic acid, protein, polysaccharide, and colloidal fouling. Three chemical cleaning solutions (alkaline solution at pH 11, sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), and a combination of both) were evaluated for permeate flux recovery efficiency. The results indicated that with the same mass of foulant, organic fouling was considerably more severe as compared to colloidal fouling. While organic fouling caused a considerable increase in the membrane surface hydrophobicity as indicated by contact angle measurement, hydrophobicity of silica colloidal fouled membrane remained almost the same. Furthermore, a mechanistic correlation amongst cleaning efficiency, characteristics of the model foulants, and the cleaning reagents could be established. Chemical cleaning of all organically fouled membranes by a 10 mM SDS solution particularly at pH 11 resulted in good flux recovery. However, notable flux decline after SDS cleaning of organically fouled membranes was observed indicating that SDS was effective at breaking the organic foulant—Ca²⁺ complex but was not able to effectively dissolve and completely remove these organic foulants. Although a lower permeate flux recovery was obtained with a caustic solution (pH 11) in the absence of SDS, the permeate flux after cleaning was stable. In contrast, the chemical cleaning solutions used in this study showed low effectiveness against colloidal fouling. It is also interesting to note that membrane fouling and chemical cleaning could permanently alter the hydrophobicity of the membrane surface.     

稳态工况下板式超滤器的计算

文章探讨了稳态工况下板式超滤器中表面剪切力沿膜通道长度方向的变化规律及其对膜设备的过滤通量和膜表面上沉积层的厚度沿膜通道长度方向的影响。     

An improved method for surface modification of porous water purification membranes

The surfaces of polysulfone and polyethersulfone ultrafiltration membranes were coated with polydopamine, yielding hydrophilic membranes that, under constant transmembrane pressure fouling conditions, have previously shown enhanced flux relative to unmodified membranes. When evaluated under constant permeate flux fouling, however, modified membranes exhibited higher transmembrane pressures than their unmodified analogs. This increased transmembrane pressure in the coated membranes was ascribed to the decrease in membrane permeance resulting from applying the polydopamine coating. The membrane permeance could be tuned by varying polydopamine deposition time and, even at the shortest deposition times studied here, a few minutes, a substantial increase in membrane hydrophilicity could be achieved. Therefore, polydopamine was deposited on a membrane of relatively high permeance until the pure water permeance of the modified membrane matched that of a membrane having lower native permeance, permitting a comparison of the fouling performance of a modified and unmodified membrane with the same pure water permeance. This approach was repeated, using a single, high permeance membrane as the base membrane for modification, to produce a family of modified membranes having the same initial pure water permeances as lower permeance, unmodified membranes. When unmodified and modified membranes of the same initial permeance were compared at constant flux fouling conditions, the modified membranes consistently exhibited lower transmembrane pressures and similar organic rejections to the unmodified membranes. Because many porous water purification membranes are operated at constant flux in industrial settings, an interesting methodology for membrane surface modification may be to surface-modify a membrane of high permeance until the desired permeance is achieved, rather than by surface modification of a membrane that natively has the desired water transport characteristics, since the surface modification procedures almost invariably lead to lower pure water permeance.     

Dendritic molecules give excellent long-lasting desalination fouling resistance to reverse osmosis membrane by generating an amine-rich layer

The organic fouling of polyamide membranes is one of the most serious problems in reverse osmosis fields such as sea water desalination and sewage disposal. In this study, poly(ethylene imine)–poly(ethylene glycol) dendrimer is used to improve the fouling resistance of polyamide reverse osmosis membranes. A crucial pretreatment is carried out with a reaction between poly(ethylene imine) and acyl chloride on the nascent polyamide surface, generating an amine-rich selective layer. Poly(ethylene glycol) diglycidyl ether is then attached to the primary amine group. The results illustrate a remarkable improvement in membrane surface hydrophilicity after modification (the contact angle decreases from 96.7° to 49.5°). Dynamic fouling tests are implemented with bovine serum albumin as a typical protein foulant, in which the membranes show very low protein adsorption (flux recovery ratio 96.9%). After 11-cycle fouling tests, the membranes show excellent long-term stability and remarkable antifouling property and cleaning performance. This approach of grafting a dendrimer might provide new insight for antifouling modifications for membranes. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47368.     

Fouling of Thin-Channel and Tubular Membrane Modules by Dilute Suspensions

Abstract

In this paper, fouling of thin-channel and tubular ultrafiltration (UF) membrane modules by dilute suspensions have been studied theoretically. A hydrodynamic analysis of fluid-particle system is presented to describe the role of dilute suspensions in fouling such membrane modules. The present analysis assumes that for very dilute suspensions, only inertial effects-are-important for particulate fouling. Particle trajectory history and hence the fouling is computed from equations of motion for the particles, where the fluid-flow is given by the full solution of Navier-Stokes equation. To simulate the flux decline due to build up of foulant layer on the membrane walls, it is assumed that the deposition of particles on the membrane surface at discrete time interval is a steady state event and thus formulating the fouling problem as an infinite series of successive steady state events. Present simulation results indicate that inertial effects are important and under positive wall permeation flux conditions, particles are encouraged to migrate towards the membrane wall causing so-called ‘membrane fouling’ by the particulars.     

化学浴沉积制备防污自洁型PVDF/PMMA共混膜研

使用NaOH溶液亲水改性聚偏氟乙烯(PVDF)/聚甲基丙烯酸甲酯(PMMA)共混膜,在共混膜表面化学浴沉积烷基氯硅烷,构筑微纳米结构,制备出具有超疏水能力的PVDF/PMMA共混膜,对共混膜的微观结构和性能进行了表征。结果表明,亲水改性提升了PVDF/PMMA共混膜表面烷基氯硅烷的化学浴沉积效果;亲水改性的最佳工艺条件为：NaOH的浓度为40 %、反应时间为60 min、反应温度为70 ℃;化学沉积后的PVDF/PMMA共混膜接触角高达154.6 °;集灰实验表明,倾斜角度约为1 °时水滴能将膜表面的灰尘带走,膜的防污自洁性能优良。     

反渗透膜的污染与清洗

对反渗透膜的污染原因、污垢种类及其危害进行了综述。准确判断膜清洗时机 ,针对不同的膜材质和不同类型的污垢 ,选用恰当的清洗剂 ,采用合理的清洗工艺 ,清除各类污垢 ,快速恢复膜通量     

Self-doped sulfonated polyaniline ultrafiltration membranes with enhanced chlorine resistance and antifouling properties

Membranes heavily rely on chlorination to diminish (bio)fouling, but chlorination can also lead to membrane degradation. We developed sulfonated polyaniline (S-PANI) ultrafiltration (UF) membranes with improved chlorine resistance and intrinsic antifouling properties. The S-PANI membranes were synthesized through Non-solvent Induced Phase Separation (NIPS). Membrane performance was evaluated under harsh chlorine conditions (250 ppm sodium hypochlorite for 3 days under different pH conditions). The S-PANI membranes showed improved chlorine resistance including a stable performance without changes in model foulant BSA rejection. In contrast, PANI membranes suffered critical structural damage with complete leakage and commercial PES membranes showed a 76% increase in pure water flux and a noticeable change in BSA rejection. Small changes in S-PANI membrane performance could be linked to membrane structural changes with pH, as confirmed by SEM, IR spectroscopy, and contact angle measurements. Additionally, the S-PANI membranes showed better antifouling properties with a high flux recovery ratio in comparison to PANI membranes using alginic acid, humic acid, and BSA model foulants. Chemical cleaning by sodium hypochlorite re-instated the transport properties to its initial condition. Overall, the developed S-PANI membranes have a high chlorine tolerance and enhanced antifouling properties making them promising for a range of UF membrane applications.     

PROTEIN ADSORPTION AND FOULING OF CERAMIC MEMBRANES AS MEASURED BY SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY WITH DIGITAL X-RAY MAPPING

A technique for studying fouling in ceramic membranes using the energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy capability of an electron microscope is described. The location and amount of foulant within the membrane are presented on a digital x-ray map showing elements constituent to or stained on the foulant.

Fouling of alumina membranes during filtration of the protein hemoglobin has been studied as a function of filtration time, pH, and membrane pore size. After each filtration run, the protein within a piece of the membrane was stained with phosphotungstic acid and located on a digital map of either phosphorus or tungsten.

For a 0.2 μm pore size membrane, time dependent fouling was observed consistent with an observed flux decline within the first few minutes of filtration. A pH dependence was also observed indicating much greater fouling at pH 6.9 near the protein isoelectric point than at pH 8.5. This observation is consistent with pH dependent adsorption, flux, and rejection studies. No internal fouling was observed for a 40 Å pore size membrane, which is consistent with the size of hemoglobin in solution being larger than the 40 Å pores and with the fact that the 40 Å membrane can be more easily cleaned after use than can the 0.2 μm membrane.     

Mechanisms underlying the effects of membrane fouling on the nanofiltration of trace organic contaminants

The influence of membrane fouling on the retention of four trace organic contaminants - namely sulfamethoxazole, ibuprofen, carbamazepine, and triclosan - by nanofiltration membranes was investigated in this study. Humic acid, alginate, bovine serum albumin, and silica colloids were selected as model foulants to simulate various organic fractions and colloidal matter that are found in secondary treated effluent and surface water. The effects of membrane fouling on the separation process was delineated by comparing retention values of clean and fouled membranes and relate them to the membrane properties (under both clean and fouled conditions) as well as physicochemical characteristics of the trace organic contaminants. Membrane fouling was dependent on the physicochemical properties of the model foulants. Initial foulant-membrane interaction could probably be a major factor governing the process of membrane fouling particularly by the organic foulants. Such membrane-foulant interaction was also a dominating factor governing the effects of membrane fouling on the membrane separation efficacy. In good agreement with our previous study (Nghiem and Hawkes, 2007 [1]), the effects of fouling on retention were found to be membrane pore size dependent. In addition, results reported here suggest that these effects could also be foulant dependent. It was probable that the influence of membrane fouling on trace organic retention could be governed by four distinctive mechanisms: modification of the membrane charge surface, pore blocking, cake enhanced concentration polarisation, and modification of the membrane hydrophobicity. The presence of the fouling layer could affect the retention behavior of charged solutes by altering the membrane surface charge density. While the effect of surface charge modification was clear for inorganic salts, it was less obvious for the negatively charged pharmaceutical species (sulfamethoxazole and ibuprofen) examined in this investigation, possibly due to the interference of the pore blocking mechanism. Evidence of the cake enhanced concentration polarisation effect was quite clear, particularly under colloidal fouling conditions. In addition, organic fouling could also interfere with the solute-membrane interaction, and therefore, exerted considerable influence on the separation process of the hydrophobic trace organic contaminant triclosan.     

Atomic layer deposition of Al2O3 on porous polypropylene hollow fibers for enhanced membrane performances

Porous polypropylene hollow fiber (PPHF) membranes are widely used in liquid purification.However,the hydrophobicity of polypropylene (PP) has limited its applications in water treatment.Herein,we demonstrate that,for the first time,atomic layer deposition (ALD) is an effective strategy to conveniently upgrade the filtration performances of PPHF membranes.The chemical and morphological changes of the deposited PPHF membranes are characterized by spectral,compositional,microscopic characterizations and protein adsorption measurements.Al2O3 is distributed along the cross section of the PP hollow fibers,with decreasing concentration from the outer surface to the inner surface.The pore size of the outer surface can be easily turned by altering the ALD cycles.Interestingly,the hollow fibers become much more ductile after deposition as their elongation at break is increased more than six times after deposition with 100 cycles.The deposited membranes show simultaneously enhanced water permeance and retention after deposition with moderate ALD cycle numbers.For instance,after 50 ALD cycles a 17％ increase in water permeance and one-fold increase in BSA rejection are observed.Moreover,the PP membranes exhibit improved fouling-resistance after ALD deposition.     

Investigation of combined fouling behavior in nano-filtration process under various feed conditions

Despite the great advance in nano-filtration (NF) process development in various applications, its performance in water treatment is still impeded by the undesired fouling phenomenon, which is not yet fully understood nowadays. In this study, a comprehensive investigation on the fouling behavior, more specifically the combined fouling behavior with the presence of more than one type of foulant was carried out under various solution chemistries and feed hydraulic pressures. The interaction between the model organic foulant (alginate) and inorganic foulant (silica colloid) was systematically studied with nano-filtration membranes, with a more severe fouling observed in the combined fouling than individual foulants. However, the results also revealed that the commonly observed synergistic effect of combined fouling in the forward osmosis process was not present in the nano-filtration process. In addition, the solution chemistries (pH and calcium ions) and feed hydraulic pressure were also found to have certain influence on the combined fouling, especially the feed hydraulic pressure which exhibited a more pronounced impact on the flux decline than the other factors, thus in turn, affecting more on the reversibility of the membrane fouling.