Antifouling membrane based on sodium alginate coated polyamide thin film composite for desalination of brackish water

Sodium alginate coated polyamide thin film composite (SA/PA-TFC) membranes were synthesized for the desalination of brackish water through reverse osmosis. Membranes were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, AFM, thermogravimetry, and universal testing machine for structural analysis, crystallinity, morphological, compositional, thermal, and mechanical properties, respectively. The effect of feed pressure on water flux and % salt rejection was quantified. Simulation results generated using the commercial process simulator PRO/II were in good agreement with the experimental data. Case studies using simulator were performed for brackish water with different salinity to optimize operating pressure based on product unit cost (PUC) by varying the feed pressure and membrane area. The calculated PUCs were found to be 0.9 and 0.3 $/m³ for corresponding feed total dissolved solids (TDS) concentrations of 5000 and 500 mg/L at an optimum pressure of 10 bar, to achieve a salt rejection of 98% using a membrane area of 335 m². We believe these membranes are a prospective solution for brackish water desalination.     

具有三维聚酰胺脱盐网络结构的无纺布复合正渗透膜

利用间苯二胺（MPD）和均苯三甲酰氯（TMC）,直接在聚酯无纺布（NV）织物的多孔空间中进行界面聚合,形成大通量无纺布复合正渗透（NVC-FO）膜。NVC-FO膜在无纺布内部形成的多层次三维（3-D）聚酰胺结构,分布在30~50μm深的聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯支撑材料的内部。这种相对松散的有深度的3-D聚酰胺网络,不仅透水表面积大,而且可以避免薄层聚酰胺缺陷导致的高漏盐性,有较低的反向盐通量。进一步研究发现,在一定范围内降低单体质量分数（MPD 1%~0.01%,TMC 0.5%~0.005%）,可以形成更宽广的3-D聚酰胺网络结构,在保持较低的反向盐通量的同时得到更高的水通量。使用1mol/L NaCl作为汲取溶液,优化的NVC-FO膜水通量最高可以达到193.54L/(m²·h),反向盐通量为0.047mol/(m²·h)。采用加压正渗透实验,发现这些高通量NVC-FO膜的盐穿透破裂压力在200~1400Pa之间,而且证实了降低单体质量分数会导致膜的耐压性能显著降低。尽管NVC-FO膜的耐压性能有待提高,但是该研究有可能为构建高脱盐性能的FO膜提供一条新的思路。     

Unsupported electrospun membrane for water desalination using direct contact membrane distillation

In this project, an unsupported electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride)-co-hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-HFP) membrane was used for water desalination using direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). The membrane was electrospun using a laboratory-scale machine with multiple nozzles that was developed in-house. Critical process parameters, including the applied voltage and polymer concentration, were optimized to obtain bead-free electrospun membranes with fiber diameters less than 300 nm. To improve the membrane thermal stability and performance, the selected electrospun membrane was heat-pressed at 160°C. The untreated and heat-pressed membranes were tested in a DCMD setup at different feed temperatures (60, 70, and 80°C) and feed flow rates (0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 L/min), while maintaining the permeate temperature and flow rate at 20°C and 0.2 L/min, respectively. The modified electrospun membrane exhibited a very high permeate flux (>37.5 kg/m²/h) and a salt rejection rate of 99.99% at a feed temperature of 70°C. The performance of the heat-pressed unsupported PVDF-HFP electrospun membrane was nearly identical to a commercially available polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) supported membrane. These promising results demonstrate that relatively low-cost electrospun membranes can be easily produced and successfully used in DCMD to minimize the capital cost and increase the energy efficiency of the process.     

Development of a new asymmetric alloy membrane for water desalination

The preparation of a novel asymmetric membrane cast from a poly (4-vinylpyridine) and cellulose acetate homogeneous mixture is discussed. The two polymers were found to be miscible in concentrated solutions. Asymmetric membranes were cast from a sexted dope mixture containing: chloroform, methanol, acetone and formamide. The as-cast solution, when coagulated in water at ambient temperature, yields a highly plasticized asymmetric matrix which, upon slow diffusion of the chloroform into the water, solidifies into a glassy state. The membranes following this stage, do not require annealing and yield high fluxes and salt rejection when tested in reverse osmosis. The asymmetric morphology was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy studies which revealed a dense skin resting upon a highly porous, open-celled, foam-like structure. This structure retains its original wet dimensions upon drying. Brief attempts to quaternize the matrix are also reported.     

Polyphosphates used for membrane scaling inhibition during water desalination by membrane distillation

The desalination of surface water (lake) was performed using direct contact membrane distillation. The membrane distillation process was carried out at 358 K. As a consequence of water heating the CaCO₃ deposit formed on the membrane surfaces, which resulted in a decrease in module efficiency. The polyphosphate antiscalant was used for restriction of carbonate deposition. In order to increase the scaling potential during the desalination process, the water was additionally enriched with bicarbonates (feed alkalinity 3.1 mmol HCO₃^–/dm³ and 4.5 mmol HCO₃^–/dm³). The membrane distillation with and without antiscalant was carried out to evaluate the scale inhibition effect. Various solution compositions (2–20 ppm) of the commercial polyphosphate based antiscalant (destined for reverse osmosis) and laboratory-grade sodium polyphosphate was used. SEM–EDS was used to investigate the chemical composition and morphology of the precipitate formed on the membrane surface. It was found that the formation of CaCO₃ crystallites was almost eliminated as a result of using antiscalant. However, a thin layer of amorphous deposits on the membrane surface was observed. As a results, a decline of the permeate flux was still observed. The initial module efficiency was restored by periodical rinsing of the membranes with diluted HCl solutions. The application of antiscalant minimized the penetration of deposit into the pores, and a high permeate flux was maintained over a period of 260 h of performed investigations when periodical rinsing with HCl solution was used.     

Highly stable hydrophobic SiNCO nanoparticle‐modified silicon nitride membrane for zero‐discharge water desalination

Membrane distillation water desalination can attain a significantly higher water recovery than reverse osmosis, while the lack of stable hydrophobic membranes limits its commercial applications. This article presents the preparation of a new hydrophobic membrane by modifying a porous Si₃N₄ substrate with vesicular SiNCO nano‐particles. The membrane had a water contact angle of 142°, due to the presence of –Si–CH₃ terminal groups and the high surface roughness. The contact angle remained nearly the same after exposures of the membrane to boiling water, aqueous solutions with pH ranging from 2 to 12, and benzene. The membrane exhibited satisfactory water desalination performance on highly concentrated NaCl solutions and simulated seawater. With the highly stable membrane, it is promising to develop a zero‐discharge water desalination process for simultaneous production of fresh water for daily uses and brine for industrial uses. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 1272–1277, 2017     

Water permeation and solute rejection behaviors of a novel hydrophilic polyamide membrane

Summary The poly(BOL) membrane prepared by casting polymerization exhibited an excellent fractional solute-rejection behavior in the aqueous solution, having a comparatively sharp boundary region at the molecular weight range of about 200 to 1400, together with an extremely high water permeability. These conspicuous behaviors, as well as a great capacity for water absorption, may result from some delicate arrangement of polar hydrophilic and nonpolar hydrophobic microdomains probably formed along and between the polymer chains.     

Low-pressure RO membrane desalination of agricultural drainage water

Agricultural drainage water is a complex mixture of dissolved and suspended chemical species and may contain a wide variety of microorganisms. The application of membrane systems for desalination of agricultural drainage (AD) water requires careful consideration of feed water quality, suitable membrane selection and operating conditions. In order to evaluate the potential applicability of low-pressure reverse osmosis (RO) to the treatment of AD water, a diagnostic approach to membrane selection and process evaluation was undertaken in support of a pilot field study in the California San Joaquin Valley. Five candidate membranes were evaluated in a diagnostic laboratory membrane system which provided an initial selection based on salt rejection and product water flux performance for model salt solutions of univalent and divalent cations. Biofouling potential of the selected membranes was also evaluated using two standards strains of bacteria. Preliminary pilot plant performance, based on the selected membranes, was encouraging and has provided the basis for long-term pilot plant testing at higher recoveries to assess the impact of fluctuating AD water feed composition.     

RO membrane autopsy of Zarzis brackish water desalination plant

Tunisia, located in a semi-arid zone, has limited water resources. The shortage of good water quality in particular at the south regions required a brackish water desalination to supply these regions with potable water. Zarzis desalination plant, working since 1999, has revealed difficulties related to the loss of membrane performances. In the aim to determine the reason of membrane fouling, foulant layer were analysed. The membrane autopsy has achieved by different methods, such as TOC (total organic carbon) measurement, SEM (scanning electron microscopy), AFM (atomic force microscopy), FTIR (fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) analysis, diffraction by X-ray. Results show that the foulant layer composed mostly of SiO₂, clay, organic matter (polysaccharide, protein), CaSiO₃, Fe₃O₄, AlPO₄, and CaSO₄. The characteristics bonds obtained by IR indicate the presence of polysaccharides and proteins that constitute a source for further microbiological growth; this is the problem of biofouling. The metallic elements results of corroded stainless steel and internal coating of cartridges filter that are damaged by the silica particle rejected by sand filters. The scale of CaSO₄ and CaSiO₃ deposition is owing to the bad antiscaling efficiency. The results are presented and discussed in the light of new trends in material.     

Hydrophobizing polyether sulfone membrane by sol-gel for water desalination using air gap membrane distillation

ABSTRACT

The hydrophobic polyether sulfone membranes were prepared by the sol-gel method to be applied in an air gap membrane distillation setup for desalination. The surface modifications were carried out using Trimethylsilyl chloride (TMSCl) and Methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) solutions. The membranes were characterized using Attenuated Total Reflection Infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Optical Contact Angle (OCA) methods. The effects of membrane preparation as well as operating conditions such as temperature difference, salt concentration, feed rotation speed, and cold-side temperature on membrane performance were investigated using central composite design method. It was found that feed temperature has the largest effect among the parameters on the permeation flux. The flow rate and salt rejection of the membrane in the optimum conditions were 4.47 Kg m^?2 h^?1 and 99.37%, respectively.     

Fabrication of polyamide thin film nanocomposite reverse osmosis membrane incorporated with a novel graphite-based carbon material for desalination

The properties of polyamide (PA) thin film composite (TFC) membranes are affected by many variables, especially the additives in the process of interfacial polymerization that play an important role in the properties of membranes. In this study, a new type graphite carbon was added into organic phase containing trimesoyl chloride for interfacial polymerization with aqueous phase containing m-phenylenediamine to prepare modified polyamide thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes for reverse osmosis (RO) adhibition. Polysulfone ultrafiltration membranes were used as the carrier of the interfacial polymerization. The concentration of graphite carbon was selected from 0.002 to 0.01 wt%. The polyamide nanocomposite membrane prepared with the concentration of 0.004 wt% graphite carbon showed the best RO desalination performance, which the water flux of this TFN membrane is over 2.3 times as much as pristine TFC membrane, and the salt rejection is over 99%. This article provides a well-performing polyamide thin film nanocomposite membrane modified by a new-type carbon nanoparticles consequently.     

水蒸气在中空纤维复合膜中渗透的微分阻力模型

建立了水蒸气在中空纤维复合膜中渗透的微分阻力模型,用实验验证了模型的可靠性。采用该模型估算出中空纤维膜的结构参数,研究了水蒸气在各层膜中的阻力,并以H2O/C2H2系统为例,考察了膜的结构参数对H2O/C2H2选择性的影响。     

焦耳效应强化气隙式膜蒸馏脱盐过程的实验研究

以膜蒸馏海水淡化为背景,通过对自制导电炭膜通入直流电产生焦耳效应,开展焦耳效应强化膜蒸馏氯化钠水溶液脱盐过程实验研究。结果表明,制备的煤基炭膜在100℃内具有良好的结构稳定性;在实验范围内,炭膜对氯化钠的截留率在99.96%以上;焦耳效应对膜蒸馏渗透通量的提高率最高可达60%,且低温时焦耳效应对膜蒸馏的强化效果更好、电转换效率更高;引入的焦耳热除用于水分汽化外,还可提高料液温度、改善温度极化、增加传质推动力;焦耳效应同时对膜蒸馏过程传质系数产生影响,在进料温度为50~80℃时,受努森扩散和分子扩散影响,电流为1A时传质系数值将减小,电流为3A和5A时传质系数值将增大;膜蒸馏过程引入焦耳效应不会产生氧化还原反应和额外膜结垢;在炭膜中引入电流不会破坏炭膜及其表面PDMS层的结构。本文研究内容丰富了膜蒸馏海水淡化过程的强化方法,也可为焦耳效应影响膜蒸馏过程的模拟研究及工业应用提供依据。     

A computer simulation of continuous ion exchange membrane electrodialysis for desalination of saline water

A computer simulation program including the principle of ① mass transport, ② current density distribution, ③ energy consumption and ④ limiting current density is developed for predicting desalinating performance of a continuous (one-pass flow) electrodialysis process. In this simulation the following parameters are inputted; ① membrane characteristics such as overall transport number, overall solute permeability, overall electro-osmotic permeability, overall hydraulic permeability, direct current electric resistance etc. ② electrodialyzer specifications such as flow-pass thickness, flow-pass width and flow-pass length of a desalting cell etc. and ③ electrodialytic conditions such as current density, electrolyte concentration in a feeding solution, linear velocity in desalting cells, standard deviation of normal distribution of solution velocity ratio etc.In a practical-scale electrodialyzer, electrolyte concentration in a desalting cell is decreased along a flow-pass and it gives rise to electrolyte concentration distribution. It causes electric resistance distribution and current density distribution. Solution velocities in desalting cells vary between the cells, and give rise to solution velocity distribution. In this simulation, these distributions are taken into account assuming that the frequency distribution of solution velocity ratio is equated by the normal distribution. Further, the influences of electrodialyzer specifications and elctrodialysis conditions described above on the performances of an electrodialyzer (desalting ratio, current efficiency, electrolyte concentration at the outlets of desalting cells, cell voltage, energy consumption, electrolyte concentration distribution, current density distribution, and limiting current density) are predicted. The simulation model is developed on the basis of the experiments and its reasonability is supported by the performance of electrodialyzers operating in salt-manufacturing plants.     

A computer simulation of batch ion exchange membrane electrodialysis for desalination of saline water

A computer simulation program is developed for predicting desalinating performance of a batch electrodialysis process. The program includes the principle of ① mass transport, ② current density distribution, ③ cell voltage, ④ mass balance/energy consumption and ⑤ limiting current density. In this simulation the following parameters are inputted; ① membrane characteristics such as overall transport number, overall solute permeability, overall electro-osmotic permeability, overall hydraulic permeability, direct current electric resistance etc., ② electrodialyzer specifications such as flow-pass thickness, flow-pass width and flow-pass length in a desalting cell etc. and ③ electrodialytic conditions such as voltage, electrolyte concentration in a feeding solution, linear velocity in desalting cells, standard deviation of normal distribution of solution velocity ratio etc.The following phenomena were computed and discussed; ① Changes of electrolyte concentration and current density with operation time. ② Influence of cell voltage on operation time (batch duration), water recovery and energy consumption. ③ Influence of volume of an electrolyte solution prepared at first on operation time. ④ Influence of cell voltage, electrolyte concentration and standard deviation of solution velocity ratio in desalting cells on limiting current density. ⑤ Energy consumption in a reverse osmosis process. ⑥ Excepting limiting current density, the performance of an electrodialyzer is never influenced by the standard deviation of normal distribution of solution velocity ratio in desalting cells. ⑦ Energy consumption in electrodialysis is less than that in reverse osmosis at feeding saline water concentration less than about 2000 mg/l.     

反渗透海水淡化膜法预处理技术研究进展

简要论述了反渗透海水淡化的各种新型膜法预处理技术研究进展情况及其在国内外的具体运用情况,内容主要涵括连续微滤技术(CMF)、浸没式帘式膜过滤、超滤技术、纳滤技术以及陶瓷膜过滤.并指出膜法预处理将成为今后反渗透海水淡化预处理的主要发展方向.     

Synthesis and evaluation of aromatic polyamide membranes for desalination in reverse-osmosis technique

Reverse-osmosis membrane-grade aromatic polyamides have been synthesized by reacting 3,5-diaminobenzoic acid separately with three different acylchlorides, viz. isophthaloyl chloride, terephthaloyl chloride, and 4,4′-diphenyldicarboxylic acid chloride. Using these polyamides, asymmetric membranes were developed and characterized for various physical parameters, such as Staverman coefficient, membrane potential, and percent salt rejection using sodium chloride solution under high pressure. The effects of pressure, feed concentration, and feed flow rate have been studied on membrane transport parameters, viz. pure water permeability constant, product rate, solute transport parameter, and separation factor. The effects of annealing temperature and solvent evaporation time on the performance of the membranes were also studied. The analysis of the reverse-osmosis data revealed that the membranes prepared from the 3,5-diaminobenzoic acid and 4,4′-diphenyldicarboxylic acid chloride are superior to the membranes prepared from other polymeric materials. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 66: 643–653, 1997