Title
Study Of The Effect Of Nanoparticles And Surface Morphology On Reverse Osmosis And Nanofiltration Membrane Productivity
Keywords
Cake growth model; Nanofiltration; Nanoparticles; Productivity; Reverse osmosis
Abstract
To evaluate the significance of reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) surface morphology on membrane performance, productivity experiments were conducted using flat-sheet membranes and three different nanoparticles, which included SiO2, TiO2 and CeO2. In this study, the productivity rate was markedly influenced by membrane surface morphology. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis of membrane surfaces revealed that the higher productivity decline rates associated with polyamide RO membranes as compared to that of a cellulose acetate NF membrane was due to the inherent ridge-and-valley morphology of the active layer. The unique polyamide active layer morphology was directly related to the surface roughness, and was found to contribute to particle accumulation in the valleys causing a higher flux decline than in smoother membranes. Extended RO productivity experiments using laboratory grade water and diluted pretreated seawater were conducted to compare the effect that different nanoparticles had on membrane active layers. Membrane flux decline was not affected by particle type when the feed water was laboratory grade water. On the other hand, membrane productivity was affected by particle type when pretreated diluted seawater served as feed water. It was found that CeO2 addition resulted in the least observable flux decline, followed by SiO2 and TiO2. A productivity simulation was conducted by fitting the monitored flux data into a cake growth rate model, where the model was modified using a finite difference method to incorporate surface thickness variation into the analysis. The ratio of cake growth term (k1) and particle back diffusion term (k2) was compared in between different RO and NF membranes. Results indicated that k2 was less significant for surfaces that exhibited a higher roughness. It was concluded that the valley areas of thin-film membrane surfaces have the ability to capture particles, limiting particle back diffusion. © 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Publication Date
8-15-2013
Publication Title
Membranes
Volume
3
Issue
3
Number of Pages
196-225
Document Type
Article
Personal Identifier
scopus
DOI Link
https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes3030196
Copyright Status
Unknown
Socpus ID
84882618025 (Scopus)
Source API URL
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84882618025
STARS Citation
Fang, Yuming and Duranceau, Steven J., "Study Of The Effect Of Nanoparticles And Surface Morphology On Reverse Osmosis And Nanofiltration Membrane Productivity" (2013). Scopus Export 2010-2014. 6097.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/scopus2010/6097