1.

ABSTRACT

The membrane separation experiment was conducted by using the Membrane Test Unit
(Model : TR14) which has been designed to demonstrate the technique of membrane
separations which has become highly popular as they provide effective separation without
the use of heating energy as in distillation processes. The main objective of this
experiment was to study a characteristics on four different types of membranes. The four
types of membrane used in this experiment were membrane 1 : AFC99 (Polyamide Film),
membrane 2 : AFC40(Polyamide Film), membrane 3 : CA 202 (Cellulose acetate) and
membrane 4 : FP100(PVDF).Membrane separation can be classified by pore sizes such
as membrane 1 is for nanofiltration(NF), membrane 2 is for ultrafiltration (UF),
membrane 3 is for reverse osmosis(RO) and membrane 4 is for microfiltration(MF). Each
membrane have a different maximum inlet pressure (bar). For membrane 1 the maximum
inlet pressure is 18 bars, for membrane 2 is 12 bars, the membrane 3 is 10 bars while the
membrane 4 is 8.5 bars. Therefore, the maximum working pressure for the system is set
at 20 bars. After allowing the system to run for 5 minutes, the sample was collected from
the permeate sampling port and the weight of permeates every 1 minute for 10 minutes
were taken. The procedure was repeated for all membranes. From the data taken, the
graph of permeate weight versus time was plotted. The graph showed that the permeate
weight is increasing as the time increase. The highest amount for permeates during 10
minutes is 10096.61 g which is for membrane 4 while the least amount for permeates is
164.37 g which is for membrane 3. Although there might be some errors that occurred in
this experiment, we can conclude that the experiment is successful.

2.0

INTRODUCTION
The membrane technology covers all process engineering measures for the transport of
substances between two fractions with the help of permeable membranes. In this
relatively separation process, the membrane acts as a semipermeable barrier and
separation occurs by the membrane controling the rate of the movement of various
molecules between two liquid phase, two gas phases, or a liquid and a gas phase. The two
fluid phases are usually miscible and the membrane barrier prevents actual, ordinary
hydrodynamic flow. Important applications of membrane technology include drinking
water by reverse osmosis filtrations in the food industry, the recovery of organic vapors
such as gasoline vapor recovery and the electrolysis for chlorine production. But also in
wastewater treatment, the membrane technology is becoming increasingly important.
This Membrane Test Unit (Model: TR 14) has been designed to demonstrate the
technique of membrane separations without the use of heating energy as in distillation
processes. This type of membrane is widely used in biotechnology and process industry.
Heat sensitive materials such as fruit juices can be separated or concentrated by virtue of
their molecular weights.
This self-contained unit which coated by steel framework, it requires only connection to a
suitable electricity supply and a normal cold water supply to be fully operational. It
consists of a feed tank, a product tank, a feed pump, a pressure regulator, a water bath,
and a membrane test module. All parts in contact with the process fluid are stainless steel,
PTFE, silicone rubber or nitrile rubber. The unit comes with a high pressure feed pump
for delivering the feed to the membrane unit at the desired flow rate and pressure. The
retentate line can be either returned to the feed tank or straight to the drain. Appropriate
sensors for flow, pressure and temperature are installed at strategic locations for process
monitoring and data acquisitions.
The unit consists of a test module supplied with four different membranes namely the
reverse osmosis (RO), nanofiltration (NF), ultrafiltration (UF) and microfiltration (MF)
membranes.

Comparison for 4 types of membranes

Reverse osmosis (RO) is a filtration method that removes many types of large molecules
and ions from solutions by applying pressure to the solution when it is on one side of a
selective membrane. The solute is retained on the pressurized side of the membrane and
the pure solvent is allowed to pass to the other side. Nanofiltration describes a process of
water purification that remove contaminats from the water to produce clean, clear and
pure water. Ultrafiltration is a separation process using membranes with pore sizes in the
range of 0.1 to 0.001 micron. Typically, ultrafiltration will remove high molecular-weight
substances, colloidal materials and organic and inorganic polymeric molecules. Low
molecular-weight organics and ions such as sodium, calcium, magnesium chloride and
sulfate are not removed. Microfiltration is a process which removes contaminants from a
fluid (liquid and gas) by passage through a microporos membrane. A typical
microfiltration membrane pore size range is 0.1 to 10 micrometers (m). Microfiltration
is fundamentally different from reverse osmosis and nanofiltration because those systems
use a pressure as a means of forcing water to go from low pressure to high pressure.
Microfiltration can use a pressurized system but it does not need to include pressure.

3.0

AIMS
To study a characteristic on four different types of membrane.

4.0

THEORY
A membrane is a selective barrier that permits the separation of
certain species in a fluid by combination of sieving and sorption
diffusion mechanism. Separation is achieved by selectively passing one
or

more

components

of

stream

through

the

membrane

while retarding the passage of one or more other components.

Membrane processes are characterized by the fact that a feed stream is divided into 2
streams: retentate and permeate. The retentate is that part of the feed that does not pass
through the membrane while the permeate is that part of the feed that does pass
through the membrane. The optional "sweep" is a gas or liquid that is used to help remove
the permeate. The component of interest in membrane separation is known as the solute.
The solute can be retained on the membrane and removed in the retentate or passed
through the membrane in the permeate.
Some advantages of membrane separation are less energy-intensive since they do not
require major phase changes, do not demand adsorbents or solvents which may be
expensive or difficult to handle and the equipment simplicity and modularity which
facilitates the incorporation of more efficient membranes. The particular advantage of
membrane separation processes is that it operate without heating and thus are
energetically usually lower than conventional thermal separation processes. This
separation process is purely physical and due to its gentle separation, the use of both
fractions (permeate and retentate) is possible.

5.0

APPARATUS AND MATERIALS

Apparatus

i.

SOLTEQ Membrane Test Unit (Model : TR14)

ii.

4 different types of membrane - membrane 1 : AFC99 (Polyamide Film)

- membrane 2 : AFC40(Polyamide Film)
- membrane 3 : CA 202(Cellulose acetate)
- membrane 4 : FP100(PVDF)

iii.

Container

iv.

Digital weighing balance

v.

Stopwatch

Material

i.
ii.

100g Sodium chloride

Water

6.0

METHODOLOGY / PROCEDURE
1. The general start-up procedures were performed.
2. The experiment was started for membrane 1. Valves V2, V5, V7, V11 and V15 were
opened.
3. The maximum working pressures was set to 20bars, by switching on the plunger
pump (P1) and slowly valve V5 was closed. The pressure value at pressure gauge was
observed and the pressure regulator was adjusted to 20bars.
Warning : Make sure valve V2 is opened.
4. Valve V5 was opened. Then, the maximum inlet pressure was set to 18bars for
membrane 1 by adjusting the retentate control valve (V15).
5. The system was allowed to run for 5minutes. The sample from permeate sampling
port were collected and the sample was weighing using digital weighing balance. The
weight of permeates were recorded every 1 minute for 10 minutes.

Note : Valve V19 was opened and simultaneously valve V11 was closed to collect
sample.
6. Step 1 to 5 were repeated for membrane 2, 3 and 4. The respective sets of valves were
opened and closed and the membrane maximum inlet pressure was adjusted for every
membrane.
Membrane

Open valves
(step 2)

Sampling
valves

Retentate
control valve

V2, V5, V7,

V11 and V15

Open V19 and

close V11

V15

Membrane
maximum inlet
pressure (bar)
18

V2, V5, V8,

V12 and V16

Open V20 and

close V12

V16

12

V2, V5, V9,

V13 and V17

Open V21 and

close V13

V17

10

V2, V5, V10, Open V22 and

V18
V14 and V18
close V14
7. The graph of permeate weight versus time was plotted.

8.5

7.0

RESULTS

Membrane 1
Pressure (bar)

Time (min)

Weight (g)

18.00

1.00

42.50

18.00
18.00
18.00
18.00
18.00
18.00
18.00

2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00
8.00

83.06
123.98
164.41
206.33
247.18
288.52
329.32

18.00
18.00

9.00
10.00

370.88
412.32

Time (min)

Weight (g)

1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00
8.00
9.00
10.00

65.75
120.41
178.72
235.01
290.88
347.52
404.48
461.52
518.57
575.05

Pressure (bar)

Time (min)

Weight (g)

10.00
10.00
10.00
10.00
10.00
10.00
10.00
10.00
10.00
10.00

1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00
8.00
9.00
10.00

28.68
43.51
59.44
75.87
91.65
107.89
124.25
140.52
157.28
174.37

Time (min)

Weight (g)

Membrane 2
Pressure (bar)
12.00
12.00
12.00
12.00
12.00
12.00
12.00
12.00
12.00
12.00
Membrane 3

Membrane 4
Pressure (bar)

8.50

1.00

519.02

8.50
8.50
8.50
8.50
8.50
8.50
8.50
8.50
8.50

2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00
8.00
9.00
10.00

1026.38
1532.60
2053.65
2565.23
3059.56
4075.57
5570.85
7582.30
10096.61

GRAPH

12000
10000
8000
Membrane 4
Membrane 3

6000

Membrane 2
Membrane 1

4000
2000
0
1

10

OF
PERMEATE WEIGHT VS TIME

8.0

DISCUSSION
This experiment has been done to fulfil the objective which is to perform a characteristic
study on four different types of membrane. In doing this experiment, the apparatus used
to accomplish the objective is SOLTEQ Membrane Test Unit (Model: TR14). This unit
has been designed to demonstrate the technique of membrane separations as it provides
separation in effective way without using heat energy.
In this unit, there are four types of membrane which each of them is differ with each
other. The four membranes reverse osmosis (RO), nanofiltration (NF), ultrafiltration (UF)
and lastly microfiltration (MO) membranes respectively while in the case of membrane
type are AFC99, AFC40, CA202 and FTP100 respectively. Every type of this membrane
has its own characteristics which differ in each other as shown in table below :

Membran

Material

e type

Max

Max

Max

Apparen

pH

pressu

temperatu

Hydro

Solvent

rang

re

re

Retentio

philicit

resistanc

(bar)

++

++

charact
er

AFC99

AFC40

Polyamid

1.5-

e Film

12

Polyamid

1.5-

9.5

64

80

99%
NaCl

60

60

60% Ca

Cl2

Film

CA202

FP100

Cellulose

2-

Acetate

7.25

PVDF

1.512

25

30

2000

+++

MW

10

80

100,000
MW

From the table above, its show that each membrane have different characteristic with
each other. The first characteristics are based on its material. Membrane I and membrane
2 were made up from the same element which is Polyamide Film while the other two
membranes were made up from cellulose acetate and PVDF. Polyamide film (membrane
1 and 2) is known as its permeability to water and its relative impermeability to various
dissolved impurities including salt ions and other small non-filterable molecules.
Membrane 3 is made of cellulose acetate which has an extremely low binding
characteristic that made it ideal for protein and enzyme filtrations. The material that
membrane 4 is made of is polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF). PVDF is a material that
can provide high protein and nucleic acid binding capacity. In terms of maximum pH
range, membrane 1 and 4 have the maximum capacity of range while membrane 2 and 3
were the least. While in properties of maximum operating pressure, membrane 4 shows
the least operation while membrane 1 is the most maximum operating unit in term of
pressure.

The other characteristics of the membrane is apparent retention character with membrane
1 rated as 99% NaCl rejection, membrane 2 with 60% CaCl 2 rejection, membrane 3 with
2,000 MWCO and membrane 4 with 100,000 MWCO. Furthermore, the membranes are
characterized with their own hydrophilicity level. Hydrophilic membrane is a membrane

that has an attractive response to water and can readily adsorb water. This allows the
material to be wetted forming a water film or coating on the surface of the membrane.
Hydrophobic membrane is the opposite of it. Usually hydrophilic membrane has more
charge than hydrophobic membrane. Membrane 3 has the highest hydrophilic property
followed by membrane 2, 1 and 4. These mean that membrane 4 has the highest
hydrophobic property and usually known as hydrophobic membrane.

In doing this experiment, approximately 100mL sodium chloride has been used as the
reagent (feed). Each membrane has been set to a certain maximum pressure inlet for a
safety regulation so as not to exceed the maximum operation pressure of the membrane.
Then, the sample from permeate was collected for 10 minutes. In each 1 minute interval,
the weight of permeate was recorded. After the 10 minutes past, these steps were carried
out again for the others membranes unit.

For membrane 1, the weight of permeate collected after 10 minutes is 412.32g. For
membrane 2 is 575.05g while for membrane 3 is the lowest which is 174.37g. Lastly, for
membrane 4 the weight of permeate collected after 10 minutes is the highest which is
10096.61g. All the data got from this experiment was recorded in table in result section.
From the result, it shows that when the time increase the weight of permeate will also
increase for all four membranes. Permeate is actually a part of the feed stream that passed
through the membrane, while a part of the feed that did not pass through the membrane is
called the retentate. In the graph plotted, it shows that there are different permeation rate
for each of membrane, with membrane 4 has the highest permeation rate followed by
membrane 2, I and lastly 3. Thus, permeates moves faster through membrane 4 and
slower in membrane 3. The high permeation rate of membrane 4 is most probably due to
its hydrophobic property, whereas the low permeation rate of membrane 3 is most
probably due to its hydrophilic property. The membrane separates a wide range of
particle sizes ranging from mono ions to macromolecules.

In doing this experiment, the result get may be not 100% accurate although it follows the
theory. The error could be due to the lack of attention in doing the experiment, such as not
alert in taking the record in 1 minutes interval and not accurate in adjusting the
maximum inlet pressure. This experiments can be improve by followed the
recommendations suggested at recommendation sections.

9.0

CONCLUSION

The objective of this experimentis to study a characteristic on four different types

of membranes by using 100g of sodium chloride. The highest weight of a permeate is
10096.61g, which is for the membrane 4 while the least weight of a permeate is 174.37g
which is for membrane 3. Due to the theory, the weight of permeate for each membrane
will be different because of the difference of the maximum inlet pressure for each
membrane. From the result taken, we can also conclude that the separation process will
occur fastest in the membrane 4 and slowest at the membrane 3. From the graph that had
been plotted, it showed that the permeate weight is increasing with time. In conclusion,
based on the objective above, the experiment is concluded as successful.

10.0

RECOMMENDATIONS

i.

Ensure that before starting the experiment, the maximum working pressure for the
system is 20 bars because if the pressure exceeded 20 bars, the membrane will
break while if it is lowest than 20 bars, it will not be suitable for each membrane
used in this system.

ii.

Ensure that each particular membrane has its correct inlet pressure at the
beginning of each experiment for each different membrane because if the inlet
pressure is not correct for that particular membrane, it will not be suitable for the
membrane thus effecting the result of the experiment.

iii.

While taking the weight of the permeate by using the digital weighting balance,
the value will increase rapidly so to make sure that the accurate values can be
taken, two or more students are needed to record the result so that the average
value among them can be recorded as a result.

iv.

When collecting the sample from permeates sampling port, make sure that a big
container is being used to support the volume of the sample thus to avoid the
sample from spill out in order to get more accurate weight of permeates.

v.

The system should be run in more than 5 minutes so that the system and
membrane maximum inlet pressure is more stabilized in order to get the accurate
weight of the permeates.

vi.

During collecting the sample, the sampling valves should be open and close
simultaneously so that there is no interruption occurduring collecting the sample
from permeates sampling port.

vii.

The average weight of permeates should be calculated by taking the weight of

permeates three times in order to get more accurate value of weight of permeates.

viii.

Do not operate the pump in dry condition therefore the valve 2 is needed to be
ensure to be opened because if the pump is operating at dry condition, some break
down can occur.

11.0

REFERENCES

i.

Richard M. Felder & Ronald W. Rousseau, third edition, Elementary Principle of

ii.

Chemical Processes
Lab Manual of Chemical Engineering UiTM (CHE 523), SOLTEQ Membrane

iii.

Test Unit (Model : TR14)

Membrane Separation Process, n.d.. Available from :
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Membrane_technology#Membrane_separation_proc
esses>. [ 18 October 2014]

iv.

SOLTEQ Membrane Test Unit (TR:14), n.d.. Available from :

<https://www.google.com.my/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A
%2F%2Fwww.solution.com.my%2Fpdf
%2FTR14(A4).pdf&ei=VDpDVILlBuTKmAXGYKwAg&usg=AFQjCNGbxYmZ46q-8pAJWsOB_Duto4lhMA>. [ 18 October
2014]

v.

Pressure Driven-Pressure Separation Technologies,n.d.. Available from :

<http://www.itrcweb.org/miningwaste-guidance/to_membrane_sep.htm>. [ 19
October 2014]

vi.

Lab Technician of FKK Pilot Plant, Encik Jamil.

12.0

APPENDIX

Picture of Membrane