Preparation and characterization of hollow fiber ultrafiltration membranes and applied in protein separation

Dissertant

Salih, Haydar Ala

Thesis advisor

Zabluk, Mumtaz A.

University

University of Technology

Faculty

-

Department

Department of Chemical Engineering

University Country

Iraq

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2012

English Abstract

Hollow fiber membranes for ultrafiltration (UF) applications were fabricated by the dry/wet phase inversion method, using polyethersulfone (PES) as a polymer material, gamma butyrolactone (GBL) as a solvent and polyethylene glycols (PEG) as an additive.Water was used as an external coagulant.

Pure water, 30 wt.% ethanol or 30 wt.% isopropanol were used as an internal coagulant.

The effect of PEG concentra on (5, 10 and 15 wt.%), type of bore fluid (water, 30% ethanol and 30% isopropanol), bore fluid flow rate (7.67, 12.84 and 23.06 gm./min) and PES concentra on (20 and 25 wt.%) on the membrane structure, pure water permeability, protein separation performance and mechanical properties of the produced PES fiber were studied.

The PES hollow fiber membranes were spun using spinneret of 0.6 and 1.6 mm inside and outside diameter respectively.

The PES hollow fiber membranes were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), pore size distribution and void volume fraction.

Moreover, the UF experiments were conducted with pure water and aqueous solu ons of (500 ppm) Bovine Serum Albumen (BSA) as feeds.

To do the UF experiments, modules consisted of three fibers with an effec ve length of (22cm) were prepared.

It was found that increasing PEG concentration in the dope solution slows down diffusional exchange rate of solvent and non-solvent and consequently suppression formation of macrovoids in the membrane structure.

With increasing PEG concentra on from 5 to 10 wt.% the pure water permeability (PWP) of the PES fibers increased about 300% keeping the protein rejec on ra o more than 99.2%, while further increase of PEG concentra on reduced the PWP.

Using 30% ethanol as a bore fluid produced fiber with pore density higher than that produced using water or 30% isopropanol as a bore fluid.

With increasing of bore fluid rate from 7.67 to 23.06 gm/min the pore density and the PWP increased from 14698.6 to 29440.2 pore/cm2 and from 45.2 to 107.4 l/m2.hr.bar respec vely, while the protein rejection ratio slightly decreased.

The pure water permeability, porosity and pore size decreased with increasing PES concentration in the dope solution.

The mechanical properties in terms of Young’s modulus, tensile strength and elongation at break were enhanced with increasing PES concentration in the dope solution, but it decreased with the increasing of hydrophilic additive concentration in the dope solution.

Main Subjects

Engineering & Technology Sciences (Multidisciplinary)

Topics

• Technology

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-419983