KNC 3221: CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY 4

Experiment 4: Membrane Filtration

Lecturer name: Sir Khairul Anwar b Mohd Said

Name Matric No.

Nancy Kalang 42614
Ricky Anak Tubam 43823
Savena Anak Fabian 43930
Ummie Zulaikha Kamarul Jaman 44510
Winnie Anak Renang 44627
Submission Date: 31 March 2016
st

Faculty of Engineering
Department of Chemical Engineering & Energy Sustainability
 Sem 2_2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS

NO. CONTENT PAGE

1.0 INTRODUCTION 3

2.0 OBJECTIVE 4

3.0 SAFETY GUIDELINES 4

4.0 APPARATUS AND MATERIALS 4

5.0 METHODOLOGY 5

6.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 6

7.0 CONCLUSION 8

8.0 REFERENCES 8

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1.0 INTRODUCTION
According to Course Hero (2016), membrane separation or filtration is a

crucial technique used in chemical process industry which is used to separate

substances from a mixture by filtering method via porous membrane. The

substances that are being filtered can be either in gas or liquid phase. Figure 1.1

illustrates the concept of separation or filtration technique. Based on the Figure

1.1, it shows that one or more component is used as a feed to diffuse through a

thin barrier membrane, and permeate (pure water) will be collected from other

compartment of the membrane. The stream leaving the feed compartment is

called as retentate as this is because some of the component is retained

(Entertainmentbazar, 2016).

Figure 1.1 Membrane separation (Entertainmentbazar, 2016).

Basically, the machine used in this experiment consists of two types of

membrane which are Ultrafiltration (UF) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) membrane.

UF membrane has a pore size about 0.01 microns while RO membrane has a

pore size about 0.001 microns. UF membrane is only able to remove many

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microorganisms but viruses will remain in the water. However, for RO membrane

it can remove all the microorganisms, viruses, a range of salt and also most of

the natural organic matter (SDWF, 2016). Therefore, in this experiment, RO

membrane is the main focus.

As mentioned, reverse osmosis is a technology used to remove a vast of

contaminants from water by applying a pressure as a driving force to push the

water through semi-permeable membrane, as a result permeate is well separated

from the water. Theoretically, reverse osmosis process is when the water is moved

through the membrane against the concentration gradient which is from lower

concentration solute to higher concentration of solute. In this experiment,

reverse osmosis is used to separate the permeate from the water containing an

amount of salts which is known as rejection. Figure 1.2 shows the membrane

filtration unit used in laboratory. This model involves three parameters on

separation performance to demonstrate the effect which are temperature, flow

rate and pressure. The SOLTEQ membrane filtration unit (Model: FD01) consists

of feed tank, permeate tank, feed pump, plate heat exchanger, control panel and

digital instrumentation.

Figure 1.2: SOLTEQ Membrane Filtration Unit (Model: FD01)

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2.0 OBJECTIVE
The objective of this experiment is:
i. To study the effect of operating pressure on the quality of permeates
ii. To be able to operate Membrane Filtration Unit (SOLTEQ MODEL:

FD 01)

3.0 SAFETY GUIDELINES

Safety precautions is taken as first priority and protective equipment such

as lab coat, goggles, mask and hand gloves is being worn during the laboratory

works. Before starting up the experiment, students should understand all the

operating instructions supplied with the unit and must carefully read the

manual before attempting to operate the unit. Students have to remove all the

air in the pump to avoid chocking to occur. Finally, all the apparatuses used and

the workbench are cleaned after the experiments are completed.

4.0 APPARATUS AND MATERIALS

Apparatus and materials used in the experiment are as below:
i. Membrane Filtration Unit (Model SOLTEQ:FD 01)
ii. 120g Sodium Chloride, NaCl
iii. Beakers
iv. Measuring Cylinders
v. Stopwatch

5.0 METHODOLOGY

Start-Up Procedure

1. The appropriate membranes have been properly fixed into the housing

is ensured. The manufacturer installation guide on how to install the

membrane into the housing is referred.

2. Initially, all valves are closed.

3. Solution required for every experiment is prepared and fill into the

feed tank. For example: For reverse osmosis experiment, prepare

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 approximately 50 liters of salt solution in feed tank at desired

concentration.

4. The power for the control panel is turned on. Check all indicators on

the panel are functioning and displaying the correct values.

5. The flow pressure is set at 35 bar.

6. Valves V2, V5, V8, V9 and V10 are opened. The feed pump P1 is

switched on and the liquid is circulated through the system for few

minutes. If necessary, valve V9 is adjusted to regulate the feed flow

rate.

7. The readings of all the instruments are observed.

8. The feed pump is switched off. Valves V2, V5, V8, V9 and V10 are

closed.

9. If cooling is required, ensure that valves V14 is opened to supply cold

water continuously.

10. The unit is now ready for experiment.

Operating Procedure

1. The Instructional Manual for SOP is read.

2. The start-up procedures as attached on the equipment is performed.

3. RO membranes (AFC99) is inserted into the Membrane 1 module. The

rubber seal well is secured on both end of the membranes and make

sure it does not fold. The screw is tighten and make sure no leakage.

4. 120 g of NaCl is prepared into 60 L of water.

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5. The maximum working pressure is set at 35 bars.

6. Make sure that all valves are initially set as follows:

Open Close
V2, V5, V8, V9, V10 V1, V3, V4, V6, V7, V11,

V12, V13, V14, V15, V16

7. The feed tank is filled up with 60 L salt solution.

8. The sampling valve (V15) is opened and drain off the water leftovers in

the unit.

9. Plunger pump is started. Inlet pressure is set to 5 bars by adjusting

the needle valve (V9) and the water is let flow for 1 minute until the

flow rate is stable before taking any reading.

10. The sampling valve (V15) is opened to collect permeate every 1 minute.

The volume of collected permeates is recorded every 1 minutes for at

least 15 minutes.

11. The plunger pump is stopped and valve (V9) is closed.

12. The experiment is repeated, but this time varies the inlet pressure by

a factor 5 bars by manipulating the needle valve (V9).

13. After all experiment was done, the shut-down procedure is performed

by following the SOP attached on the equipment and all apparatus are

cleaned.

Shut-Down Procedure

1. Plunger pump (P1) is switched off

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2. All valves are closed.

3. If the experiment is not going to be run for long period, drain the

product tank and feed tank by opening valves V4 and V3 respectively.

Then, valves V6, V12 and V15 are opened.

4. The pressure regulator PR1 knob is turned completely counter

clockwise to release the pressure.

5. The power for control panel is turned off.

6.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 1: Salt Rejection from Water

1 dV
J=
Am dt Equation 1

Flowrate: 11.8 LPM

Temperature: 27.8
C

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 In this experiment, the SOLTEQ membrane filtration unit (Model: FD

01) is used to study the quality of permeates by varying the pressures. The

unit has been designed to demonstrate the separation technique by using

membrane without utilizing heat energy as in other process. The unit is

equipped with two types of membrane namely, Ultrafiltration (UF) and

reverse osmosis (RO), but for this experiment, only one membrane will be

used, which is reverse osmosis (RO). Membrane AFC 99, will reject the salt

at maximum pressure. The salt that is used in this experiment is sodium

chloride (NaCl).

Reverse osmosis (RO) membrane is a type of semipermeable membrane

that has a pore size of 0.001 micron (SDWF, 2016). Reverse osmosis (RO) is

used in many applications mainly to obtain pure water and it is commonly

used for sea desalination. It is economically, fast and continuous filtration

process due to its smallest pore. The water (solvent) will moves from high

concentration (low water content) to low concentration (high water content)

so that there will be a balance ionic concentrations on both side of the

membrane. The applied pressure is used to overcome the osmotic pressure.

The osmotic pressure will drive the water away from the dissolved molecules.

In this experiment, the students are required to study the rejection of salt. It

is the amount of solids (solute) remove by the membrane.

The results from the experiment is obtained and shown in Table 1 in

which the volume of permeate is collected for 15 minutes for different

pressures starting from 5 bar until 25 bar with increments of 5. The pressure

that is varies throughout the experiment is the feed water pressure. The salt

solution from the feed tank is pushed by the pressure to pass through the

membrane. From the table, it can be seen clearly that the volume of

permeate is increased when the pressure used is high. This is due to the high

force that pushes the water to pass through the membrane. When high

pressure is applied, there will be high amount of water that can be transport

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(high water flux). As compared pressure of 5 bar with pressure of 25 bar, the

volume of permeate collected is 260 ml and 900 ml.

Also, the water flux for the high pressure, 25 bar is 17.0455 m/s and

4.92424 m/s for the low pressure, 5 bar. Unfortunately, the volume of

permeate collected for 25 bar is lower than 20 bar though the pressure is

higher. This is because of the pressure limit in which at certain limit of

pressure, the salt rejection is no longer increases and some of the salt flows

along with the water to pass through the membrane. Based on the Table 1,

the volume of permeate collected is not consistent for each minute. One of

the reason is that the reverse osmosis (RO) membrane does not have a good

resistance barrier and this have caused some of the salt has passed through

the membrane. Besides, the Membrane Filtration unit has not been cleaned

frequently and this makes some of salt remained in the reverse osmosis (RO)

membrane. The remaining salt could affect the concentration of the feed

water as it pass through the membrane. The inconsistency of the result could

be because of the error done by the experimenter when collecting permeates.

Some of permeate collected is spills during when it is collected. Thus, this

affects the reading when the volume of permeated is calculated.

Figure 2: Graph Permeate Volume against Time

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 Figure 3: Graph of Permeate Flux against Time

7.0 CONCLUSION

8.0 RECOMMENDATIONS

9.0 REFERENCES

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Chemical Engineering Laboratory 4 (KNC3181), Department of Chemical

Engineering and Energy Sustainability, Faculty of Engineering, UNIMAS.

Entertainmentbazar (2016). EXPLAIN MEMBRANE SEPARATION AND

TYPES OF MEMBRANE SEPARATION. Available at:

http://www.entertainmentbazar.com/2016/03/26/explain-membrane-separation-

types-membrane-separation/. Accessed on: 2 April 2016.

Safe Drinking Water Foundation (SDWF) (2016). ULTRAFILTRATION,

NANOFILTRATION AND REVERSE OSMOSIS. Available at:

http://www.safewater.org/PDFS/resourcesknowthefacts/Ultrafiltration_Nano_Rev

erseOsm.pdf. Accessed on: 1 April 2016.

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