• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2016

Fuel cells are regarded as a representative energy source expected to replace fossil fuels particularly used in internal combustion engines. One of the most important components is polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) acting as a proton conducting barrier to prevent fuel gas crossover. Since water channels act as proton pathways through PEMs, many researchers have been focused on the 'good phase-separation of hydrophilic moiety' which ensures high water retention under low humidity enough to keep the water channel for good proton conduction. Here, we summarized the strategies which have been adopted to synthesize sulfonated PEMs having high proton conductivities even under low humidified conditions, and hope this review will be helpful to design high performance hydrocarbon PEMs.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.205-212
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• 2014

Polyethersulfone (PES) membranes were modified by various physico-chemical modification methods to enhance the surface hydrophilicity for application as a separation membrane to separate and collect water vapor from the flue gas. Homogeneous PES flat-sheet membranes were prepared and modified by acid treatment, blending and plasma treatment for hydrophilic surface modification. The surface characteristics of the modified PES membranes were evaluated by ATR-FTIR, XPS, SEM and contact angle measurements. No significant change in hydrophilicity was observed for the PES membranes modified by acid treatment with sulfuric acid or blending with various compositions of poloxamer as an amphiphilic PEO-PPO-PEO tri-block copolymer. On the other hand, Ar plasma treatment led to a significant increase in the hydrophilicity of the surface, depending on the plasma treatment time. As a result, the PES membrane could be the most efficiently surface-treated by applying the plasma treatment for enhancing their surface hydrophilicity.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.191-201
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• 2015

We have studied on the preparation of $TiCo_xFe_{1-x}$(x=0.50~1.00) system alloy, the characteristics of $TiCo_xFe_{1-x}$(x=0.50~1.00) system alloy by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), pressure composition temperature (PCT) curve, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the $H_2-N_2$ gas mixture separation of $TiCo_xFe_{1-x}$(x=0.50~1.00)- stainless steel (SS) composite membranes. The formation of $TiCo_xFe_{1-x}$(x=0.50~1.00) system alloys with cubic crystal same as TiCo was confirmed by X-ray diffractometer. $TiCo_xFe_{1-x}$(x=0.50~1.00) system alloys showed the hysteresis at $120^{\circ}C$. As the Fe content of $TiCo_xFe_{1-x}$(x=0.50~1.00) system alloys increased, the hysteresis was increased both range x=0.90~1.00 and x=0.55~0.60, and the range x=0.55~0.90 gave decreased hysteresis. $TiCo_{0.55}Fe_{0.45}$ alloy was the one showed the lowest hysteresis among them. The lowest value of hydrogen permeation pressure of $TiCo_xFe_{1-x}$(x=0.50~1.00)-SS composite membrane was $TiCo_{0.55}Fe_{0.45}$-SS composite membrane with the value of 2.5 atm at $120^{\circ}C$; otherwise, $TiCo_{0.90}Fe_{0.10}$-SS composite had the highest pressure value among the membranes with the value of 10 atm. $TiCo_{0.55}Fe_{0.45}$-SS composite membrane was the best to separate the $H_2-N_2$ gas mixture excellently among the $TiCo_xFe_{1-x}$(x=0.50~1.00)-SS composite membranes since $TiCo_{0.55}Fe_{0.45}$ had the least hysteresis, and hydrogen permeation pressure was the lowest with value of 2.5 atm.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.739-749
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• 1992

The sols prepared by dialyzing solutions, in which the hydrolyzed precipitates of TEOT or directly Ti(OC3H7)4 were resolved, were the nanoparticulate sol with the average particle size less than 7 nm and the anatase crystal phase. In the pH range of 1.5 to 2.9, the particle size of the nanoparticulate TiO2 sols (0.09 mol/ι) increased gradually upto 15 nm~26nm with the increase of pH in the initial aging state but the sols were transparent all the time, and stable without growin any more after 30 days. When the slipcasted porous alumina tubes were coated by the sol-gel dipping method, the minimum particle size and the aging time for forming the coated gel layer at the given pH were optimized. For obtaining the very thin crack-free and reproducible membrane coating, the use of a nanoparticulate TiO2 sol (0.09 mol/ι) aged for about 30 dyas at pH=2.0 was found to be the best.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.1629-1637
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• 2015

To develop various usable water from coal seam gas (CSG) water that needs to be pumped out from coal seams for methane gas production, a feasibility study was carried out, evaluating and analysing a recent report (Coal Seam Gas Water Management Policy 2012) from Queensland State Government in Australia to suggest potential CSG water treatment options for fit-for-purpose usable water production. As CSG water contains intrinsically high salinity-driven total dissolved solid (TDS), bicarbonate, aliphatic carbon, $Ca^{+2}$, $Mg^{+2}$ and so on, it was found that appropriate treatment technologies are required to reduce the hardness below 60 mg/L as $CaCO_3$ by setting the reduction rates of $Ca^{+2}$, $Mg^{+2}$ and Na+ concentrations, as well as TDS reduction. Also, Along with fiber filtration and membrane separation, an oxidation degradation process was found to be required. Along with salinity reduction, as CSG water contains organic compounds (TOC: 248 mg/L, $C_6-C_9$: <20 mg/L and $C_{10}-C_{36}$: <60 mg/L), compounds with relatively high molecular weights ($C_{10}-C_{36}$) need to be treated first. Therefore, this study suggests a combined system design with filtration (Reverse osmosis) and oxidation reduction (electrolysis) technologies, offering proper operating conditions to produce fit-for-purpose usable water from CSG water.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.810-815
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• 2011

Concentrated water discharged from seawater desalination process contains a high concentration of $Na^+$ ion. Electrolysis was applied to synthesize NaOH solution from the highly concentrated NaCl solution. The effect of various operating parameters of composited laboratory-scale chlor-alkali (CA) membrane cell was investigated. The operating parameters such as membrane types (CIMS and Nafion membranes), pretreatment of the membrane, flow rate (73 mL/min~200 mL/min), initial $Na^+$ ion concentration (1.5 M, 3M and 5 M) and current (1.5A and 2A) were evaluated. It was observed that synthesis efficiency of NaOH solution with CIMS membrane was higher than that with Nafion membrane, but the durability of CIMS membrane on $Cl_2$ gas was poor. The synthesis efficiency of NaOH solution increased with increasing initial $Na^+$ ion concentration and current, while the efficiency decreased with increasing flow rate using Nafion membrane.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.157-164
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• 2005

In this study, composite hollow fiber membranes were developed for the recovery of olefin monomers in polyolefin industry off-gases. Polyetherimide (PEI) hollow fiber support membranes were fabricated from spinning solutions containing PEI, NMP and polyethylene glycol (PEG). The influence of dope solution and inner coagulant composition on the permeation properties and structure of hollow fiber supports was examined. PDMS was used as a selective layer and coated on PEI hollow fiber support. The thickness of active layer was controlled by changing coating solution concentration. The permeation properties of hollow fiber supports and composite membranes were characterized with a pure gas permeation test. The optimized composite hollow fiber membrane has $10\;{\mu}m$ selective layer and shows excellent separation performance; the ideal selectivity of olefins over nitrogen is in the following order: 1-butylene (6.4) > propylene (17) > ethylene (97), which selectivity data are similar to the intrinsic olefin/nitrogen selectivities of PDMS. This confirms that the new composite hollow fiber membranes suitable for olefin off-gas recovery has developed successfully.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.44-50
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• 2019

In this paper, we developed mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) consisting of SBS-g-POEM block-graft copolymer, ionic liquid (EMIMTFSI) and ZIF-8 nanoparticles to separate a $CO_2/N_2$ gas pair. The SBS-g-POEM is a rubbery block-graft copolymer synthesized through low-cost free-radical polymerization. The EMIMTFSI was dissolved into the SBS-g-POEM matrix and solution synthesized ZIF-8 nanoparticles were also dispersed into the copolymer matrix. The physico-chemical properties of manufactured membranes were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), which showed that the components were compatible with each other. The gas separation performance was confirmed by time-lag measurements showing $CO_2$ permeability of 537.0 barrer and $CO_2/N_2$ selectivity of 15.2. The result represents the EMIMTFSI and ZIF-8 nanoparticles improves the gas permeability more than two-times, without significantly sacrificing the $CO_2/N_2$ selectivity.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.154-165
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• 2014

Development of unconventional natural resources such as shale gas, shale oil and coal bed methane, has been activated and improved the productivity due to the recent technology advance in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. However, the flowback water mixed with chemical additives, and the brine water containing oil, gas, high levels of salts and radioactive metals is produced during the gas production. Potential negative environmental impact due to large volumes of the produced wastewater is increasingly seen as the major obstacles to the unconventional natural resource development. In this study an integrated framework for the flowback and brine water treatment is proposed, and we reviewed the upcoming state of the art technology in water treatment. Basic separation processes which include not only membrane, evaporation, crystallization and desalination processes, but the potential water reuse and recycling techniques can be applied for the unconventional natural resource industry.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.42-47
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• 2015

In this study, PEBAX[poly(ether-block-amide)]-NaY zeolite composite membranes were prepared, and those prepared membranes were studied on permeability of $C_3H_6$ and $C_3H_8$, and selectivity ($C_3H_6/C_3H_8$). NaY zeolite particles in PEBAX-NaY zeolite composite membranes was dispersed as aggregated particles with the size $0.5{\sim}2.5{\mu}m$ by SEM observation. TGA measurement showed the weight loss change resulted from the amount of NaY zeolite when NaY zeolite was added into PEBAX. By gas permeation experiment, the permeabilities of $C_3H_6$ and $C_3H_8$ were decreased by the more addition NaY zeolite in PEBAX. Overall, $C_3H_6$ was having higher permeability than $C_3H_8$. The selectivity $C_3H_6/C_3H_8$ was decreased by the more NaY zeolite in PEBAX.