• Clean Technology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.406-414
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• 2014

Biogas is a gaseous mixture produced from microbial digestion of organic materials in the absence of oxygen. Raw biogas, depending upon organic materials, digestion time and process conditions, contains about 45-75% methane, 30-50% carbon dioxide, 0.3% of hydrogen sulfide gas and fraction of water vapor. To achieve the standard composition of the biogas the treatment techniques like absorption or membrane separation was performed for the resourcing of biogas. In this paper the experimental results of the methane purification in simulated biogas mixture consisted of methane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide were presented. The composite membrane is manufactured within polysulfone in order to increase the separation performances for the gaseous mixtures of $CO_2$ and $CH_4$ which are main components of the biogas. The effects of feed pressures and mixed gas on the separation of $CO_2-CH_4$ by membrane are investigated. Chelate chemical was utilized to treat the purification of methane from the $H_2S$ concentration of 0.3%.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.53-57
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• 1996

Polysulfone ultrafiltration membrane was coated with polyisobutylene(PIB) as a top layer to separate chlorinated hydrocarbons. The solubility parameter differences between PIB, water and perchloroethylene(PCE) or trichloroethylene(TCE) show that the solubility parameter difference between PIB and TCE or PCE is similar while that between PIB and water is far less, indicating that PIB is selective to chlorinated hydrocarbons. The pervaporation separation of TCE and PCE shows that TCE is concentrated more than four times, by PIB composite membrane, while PCE is concentrated more than thirteen times. This result shows that PIB composite membrane in this study seems to be an appropriate selective layer for the separation of TCE and PCE from aqueous organic solutions.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.365-371
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• 2016

A numerical analysis was performed for a separation of carbon dioxide and methane using 2-staged, membrane process where two polysulfone hollow fiber membrane modules were connected to provide both the methane concentration richer than 95% and the recovery higher than 90% using the recycled flows. The Compaq Visual Fortran 6.6 software was utilized for the numerical simulation. Both the methane concentration and the recovery % of methane could be successfully predicted as the function of the operating conditions. As the feed pressure, the methane concentration, and the flow rate increase, the methane concentration in a product is also found to increase and the recovery of methane is found to decrease.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.149-157
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• 2006

Hydrogen as new energy sources is highly efficient and have very low environmental emissions. The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is an emerging technology that can meet these demands. Therefore, the preparation of stable polymeric membranes with good proton conductivity and durability are very important for hydrogen production via water electrolysis with PEM at medium temperature above $80^{\circ}C$. Currently Nafion of Dupont and Aciflex of Asahi, etc., solid polymer electrolytes of perfluorosulfonic acid membrane, are the best performing commercially available polymer electrolytes. However, these membrane have several flaws including its high cost, and its limited operational temperature above $80^{\circ}C$. Because of this, significant research efforts have been devoted to the development of newer and cheaper membranes. In order to make up for the weak points and to improve the mechanical characteristics with cross -linking, acid-base complexes were prepared by the combination PSf-co-PPSS-$NH_2$ with PEEK-$SO_3H$. The results showed that the proton conductivity decreased in 17.6% and 40% but tensile strength increased in 78% and 98%, about $20.65\;{\times}\;10^6N/m^2$, in comparison with SBPSf/HPA and SPEEK/HPA complex membrane.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.34-43
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• 2005

The poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)-based thin film composite nanofiltration (NF) membranes were prepared by coating polysulfone ultrafiltration membranes, sulfonated polyethersulfone and polyamide NF membranes with aqueous PVA solution by a pressurizing method. The PVA was cross-linked with aqueous glutaraldehyde solution. The NF membranes coated with a very low concentration of PVA on all the support membranes was successfully prepared. With increasing the hydrophilicity of the support membranes, the water flux increased. Especially, ζ-potential of negatively charged polyamide NF membrane was reduced by coating the membrane with PVA. A fouling experiment was carried out with positively charged surfactant, humic acid, complex of humic acid and calcium ion and bovine serum albumin. A non-coated polyamide NF membrane was significantly fouled by various foulants. The fouling process when using humic acid and protein occurred at the isoelectric point. There was severe fouling when using humic acid and adding bivalent cations. By coating the polyamide NF membrane with aqueous PVA solution, fouling was reduced. The polyamide NF membrane coated with PVA was resistant to the acidic and basic solution.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.538-546
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• 2015

In this study, composite membrane is prepared by Layer-by-Layer method using hydrophobic polymer as a coating material on the polysulfone support. The existence of coating layer on the surface and cross section was confirmed by the scanning electronic microscopy. The flux and rejection of the resulting membranes were characterized using 100 ppm NaCl feed solution. PVSA, PEI, PAA, PSSA, PSSA_MA were used as a coating polymer in this study. The composite membrane prepared by using 8,000 ppm PAA solution (Ion strength = 0.35, Coating time = 3 min) and 10,000 ppm PEI solution (Coating time = 4 min). As a result, PAA-PEI composite membrane showed flux of 101 LMH and salt rejection of 66.7%. The composite membrane showed the comparable performance as good as NE 4040-70 (Flux = 30 LMH, Rejection = 40~70%) model produced by Toray Chemical co.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.129-135
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• 2009

The cation exchange membrane using the block co-polymer of polysulfone and polyphenylenesulfidesulfone was prepared for a separator of all-vanadium redox flow battery. The membrane property of the prepared cation exchange membrane was measured. The thermal stability of the prepared cation exchange analyzed by TG showed a more stable than that of Nafion117. The lowest measured membrane resistance, equilibrated in 1mol/L $H_2SO_4$ aqueous solution, $0.96{\cdot}cm^2$ at 3 cc of CSA (chlorosulfuricacid) which was introduction agent of ion exchange group. Electrochemical property of all-vanadium redox flow battery using the prepared cation exchange membrane was measured. Electromotive force in 100% of state of charge was 1.4 V which was that of all-vanadium redox flow battery, and cell resistance in charge and discharge at each state of charge had a low value compared with that of all-vanadium redox flow battery using Nafion117.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.297-316
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• 2010

Membrane fouling is one of the major operational concerns of membrane processes which results in loss of productivity. This paper investigates the ultrafiltration (UF) results of synthetic oil-in-water (o/w) emulsion using flat sheets of polysulfone (PSf) membrane synthesized with four different compositions. The aim is to identify the mechanisms responsible for the observed permeate flux reduction with time for different PSf membranes. The experiments were carried out at four transmembrane pressures i.e., 68.9 kPa, 103.4 kPa, 137.9 kPa and 172.4 kPa. Three initial oil concentrations i.e., 75 $mgL^{-1}$, 100 $mgL^{-1}$ and 200 $mgL^{-1}$ were considered. The resistance-in-series (RIS) model was applied to interpret the data and on that basis, the individual resistances were evaluated. The significances of these resistances were studied in relation to parameters, namely, transmembrane pressure and initial oil concentration. The total resistance to permeate flow is found to increase with increase in both transmembrane pressure and initial oil concentration while for higher oil concentration, resistance due to concentration polarization is found to be the prevailing resistance. The applicability of the constant pressure filtration models to the experimental data was also tested to explain the blocking process. The study shows that intermediate pore blocking is the dominant mechanism at the initial period of UF while in the later period, the fouling process is found to approach cake filtration like mechanism. However, the duration of pore blocking mechanism is different for different membranes depending on their morphological and permeation properties.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.55-64
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• 2019

The adsorption properties of $Cs^+$ and $Cu^{2+}$ ions were evaluated by using a polysulfone scoria zeolite (PSf-SZ) composite with synthetic zeolite synthesized from Jeju volcanic rocks (scoria). In order to investigate the adsorption properties, various parameters, such as pH, contact time, reaction rate, concentration, and temperature in aqueous solutions, were evaluated by tests carried out in batch experiments. The adsorption capacities of $Cs^+$ and $Cu^{2+}$ ions increased between pH 2 but achieved equilibrium at pH 4 and above. The adsorption rate increased rapidly up to the initial 24 h, after which it plateaued ; the adsorption rate then sustained at equilibrium from 48 h. The adsorption kinetics of $Cs^+$ and $Cu^{2+}$ ions were described better by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model than the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. The Langmuir model fitted the adsorption isotherm data better than the Freundlich model. The maximum adsorption capacities of $Cs^+$ and $Cu^{2+}$ ions obtained from the Langmuir model were 53.8 mg/g and 84.7 mg/g, respectively. The calculated thermodynamic parameters showed that the adsorption of $Cs^+$ and $Cu^{2+}$ ions on PSf-SZ was feasible, spontaneous and endothermic reaction.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.241-252
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• 2021

Rapid industrialization with growing population leads to environmental water pollution. Demand in generation of clean water from waste water is ever increasing by scarcity of rain water due to change in weather pattern. Colorimetric detection of heavy metal present in clean water is very simple and effective technique. In this review membrane based colorimetric detection of mercury (II) ions are discussed in details. Membrane such as cellulose, polycaprolactone, chitosan, polysulfone etc., are used as support for metal ion detection. Nanofiber based materials have wide range of applications in energy, environment and biomedical research. Membranes made up of nanofiber consist up plenty of functional groups available in the polymer along with large surface area and high porosity. As a result, it is easy for surface modification and grafting of ligand on the fiber surface enhanced nanoparticles attachment.