Mourad Berrabah; Khadidja Benyahia; Ahlem Zerfa; Hassiba Bouabdesselam
Abstract
The Beni Saf Water Company (BWC) desalination plant in Ain Témouchent (Algeria) uses reverse osmosis technique. This process, which is based on dense membranes operating at high pressure, produces a permeate with characteristics that exceeds the necessary requirements. However, the Reverse Osmosis ...
Read More
The Beni Saf Water Company (BWC) desalination plant in Ain Témouchent (Algeria) uses reverse osmosis technique. This process, which is based on dense membranes operating at high pressure, produces a permeate with characteristics that exceeds the necessary requirements. However, the Reverse Osmosis (RO) technique suffers from the following limitations: high energy consumption, low water recovery and excessive fouling of membranes. We conducted this work to contribute to the study of seawater desalination by introducing another system such as Nanofiltration (NF) to reduce energy consumption and retard the fouling of RO membranes. This research study is focused on the installation of Nanofiltration membranes to desalinate seawater with a salinity of about 35mg/L, in order to protect RO membranes and reduce their fouling. NF was found to be effective for partial and selective desalination of the studied seawater in single or two stages, with lower energy consumption than RO. The ESNA1-LF-LD Nanofiltration membrane is more suitable and competitive compared to SWC4-LD for seawater desalination with a 99% removal rate of multivalent ions. It allows for partial desalination and also allows for the preparation of water for industrial use (cooling....) at twice the pressure and at higher conversion rates (90%). These characteristics provide system designers with new options to reduce the capital cost of the system as well as the operating costs.
Atefeh Tizchang; Yoones Jafarzadeh; Reza Yegani; Elham Shokri
Abstract
In this study, polysulfone (PSf) nanocomposite membranes embedded with functionalized nanodiamond (ND) were prepared via Non-Solvent Induced Phase Separation (NIPS) method. ND nanoparticles were silanized by using the esterification reaction of hydrolyzed vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTS) in alcoholic solution ...
Read More
In this study, polysulfone (PSf) nanocomposite membranes embedded with functionalized nanodiamond (ND) were prepared via Non-Solvent Induced Phase Separation (NIPS) method. ND nanoparticles were silanized by using the esterification reaction of hydrolyzed vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTS) in alcoholic solution in order to enhance the compatibility between ND and PSf. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis revealed that ND nanoparticles were successfully functionalized by silane groups. Nanocomposite membranes were then prepared with different percentages of silanized NDs (SNDs). The membranes were characterized using a set of analyses and the results showed that the addition of SNDs up to 1.0 wt.% resulted in an increase in hydrophilicity, water content, porosity and water flux of membranes. Moreover, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images indicated that the membrane with 1.0 wt. % nanoparticles had more pores on the membrane surface with smaller average pore size in comparison to other membranes. Antifouling properties of the membrane was also investigated in filtration of humic acid solution and the results showed that reversible fouling and flux recovery of membranes increased at the presence of SNDs.
Mansoor Kazemimoghadam; Zahra Amiri-Rigi
Abstract
Membrane ultrafiltration (UF) is widely used in dairy industries like milk concentration and dehydration processes. The limiting factor of UF systems is fouling which is defined as the precipitation of solutes in the form of a cake layer on the surface of the membrane. In this study, the combined cake ...
Read More
Membrane ultrafiltration (UF) is widely used in dairy industries like milk concentration and dehydration processes. The limiting factor of UF systems is fouling which is defined as the precipitation of solutes in the form of a cake layer on the surface of the membrane. In this study, the combined cake filtration-complete blocking model was compared to cake filtration mechanism for flux data through ultrafiltration of skim milk at constant flow rate. The resistance data also was modeled using cake filtration model and standard blocking model. The effect of different trans-membrane pressures and temperatures on flux decline was then investigated. Based on the results obtained here, the combined complete blocking-cake formation model was in excellent agreement with experimental data. The cake filtration model also provided good data fits and can be applied to solutions whose solutes tend to accumulate on the surface of the membrane in the form of a cake layer. With increasing pressure, the differences between the model and experimental data increased.
)