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The influence of polarity on flux and rejection behaviour in solvent resistant nanofiltration - experimental observations

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journal contribution
posted on 2009-06-03, 13:31 authored by Steve Tarleton, J.P. Robinson, C.R. Millington, Arian Nijmeijer, M.L. Taylor
The separation characteristics of a dense polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane were studied using mixtures comprising xylene, cyclohexane or n-heptane with oxygenate components at concentrations up to 75%. The effects of polarity on flux and rejection performance were determined through a test matrix of solvent type, concentration, filtration pressure, crossflow rate and the degree of membrane crosslinking. In all cases involving alcohols, the more polar compound in the feed mixture was partially rejected by the membrane and the extent of rejection was dependent on the polarity as quantified by solubility parameter. The rejection-concentration profiles for several alcohol/solvent mixtures exhibited a maximum, with the highest rejection around 30%. Mixtures containing MTBE did not separate, i.e. no rejection was observed. Rejection increased with increasing pressure and crossflow rate but was largely unaffected by the degree of membrane crosslinking. Component flux was affected by the oxygenate concentration in the mixture, which was attributed in part to changes in the degree of membrane swelling with composition. Experimental findings suggest that the separation is primarily governed by multicomponent solvent/oxygenate/membrane swelling equilibria, and results compare favourably with swelling isotherms available in the open literature.

History

School

  • Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering

Department

  • Chemical Engineering

Citation

TARLETON, E.S. ... et al, 2006. The influence of polarity on flux and rejection behaviour in solvent resistant nanofiltration - experimental observations. Journal of Membrane Science, 278 (1-2), pp. 318-327

Publisher

© Elsevier

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publication date

2006

Notes

This article was published in the Journal of Membrane Science [© Elsevier] and the definitive version is available at: www.elsevier.com/locate/memsci

ISSN

0376-7388

Language

  • en