Membrane separation techniques

1. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological
University, Lonere
Department of Chemical Engineering

2. Presentation on
MEMBRANE SEPERATION TECHNIQUES
Presented by
Mohit Pradeep Raje.

3. CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• REVERSE OSMOSIS
• DIALYSIS
• MEMBRANE DISTILLATION
• MICROFILTRATION

4. INTRODUCTION
• Membrane separation is one of the most important, useful and
rapidly developing branch in industries.
• It involves separation of species from two phases with the help of
semi permeable membrane.
• Two phases are separated by a membrane.
• A membrane is a selective barrier between two phases.
• It allows to pass certain material through it.
• For low resistance, the membrane must be as thin as possible.
• Some species from feed pass through other side called Permeate
• Residual feed is called Retentate.

5. • Various types of membrane separation techniques are-
i) Reverse Osmosis
ii) Dialysis
iii) Membrane Distillation
iv) Microfiltration

6. REVERSE OSMOSIS
• The process of osmosis through membrane was first observed by Jean-
Antonie Nollet in1748
• In Reverse Osmosis water moves from region of low solvent concentration
to high solvent concentration.
• In order to achieve this, osmotic pressure is applied on feed side.

7. MAJOR COMPONENTS OF RO PLANT
• Pretreatment- Done for long life of Membrane
• Pressurization- 60-65 bars
• RO Unit- Actual Membrane separation unit
• Post Treatment- It consists of adding minerals and adjusting
the pH

8. APPLICATION
• Solvent (water) purification
• Solute concentration ex. Concentration of fruit juice, milk.

9. DIALYSIS
• Concentration gradient is Driving Force
• The resistance increases with increasing molecular weight.
• Low molecular weight readily pass, higher molecular weight has
higher resistance.

10. APPLICATION
• As artificial kidneys
• Removal toxic low molecular components such as urea, phosphate,
uric acid.
• Removal of caustic soda from colloidal hemicellulose.
• Removal of alcohol from beer.
• In pharmaceutical industry to remove salts from bio-products.

11. MEMBRANE DISTILLATION
• Mostly concentration, pressure are driving forces.
• In membrane distillation temperature gradient is driving force.
• Vapor molecule to permeate from the high temperature side to low
temperature side.
• The hydrophobic membrane must be used.

13. There are four possible configurations of the MD process:
• Direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD)
• Air-gap membrane distillation (AGMD)
• Sweeping-gas membrane distillation (SGMD)
• Vacuum membrane distillation (VMD).

14. APPLICATION
• A high quality permeate
water for semiconductor industry.
boiler feed water for power plant.
desalination of sea water.
• The concentration of solutions
waste water treatment.
Concentration of salts, acids, etc.
• Removal of volatile organic products.

15. MICROFILTRATION
• Microfiltration is membrane process which most closely resembles
conventional coarse filtration.
• The pore size of microfiltration membrane ranges from 10 to
0.05µm.
• It separate micro-organisms and suspended particles.
• Micro-filtration can be generally operated in one of two ways
a) Cross Flow Filtration
b) Dead End Filtration

16. APPLICATION
• Water Treatment
• Petroleum Refining
• Sterilization
• Dairy Processing