Carrier-facilitated transport

The discussion so far implies that membrane materials are organic polymers, and in fact most membranes used commercially are polymer-based. However, in recent years, interest in membranes made of less conventional materials has increased. Ceramic membranes, a special class of microporous membranes, are being used in ultrafiltration and microfiltration applications for which solvent resistance and thermal stability are required. Dense, metal membranes, particularly palladium membranes, are being considered for the separation of hydrogen from gas mixtures, and supported liquid films are being developed for carrier-facilitated transport processes. 

It should be noted that selective carrier facilitated transport experiments involving the crown ethers and their derivatives have not been... 

Due to the ionic nature of cephalosporin molecules, the interfacial chemical reaction may in general be assumed to be much faster than the mass transfer rate in the carrier facilitated transport process. Furthermore, the rate controlling mass transfer steps can be assumed to be the transfer of cephalosporin anion or its complex, but not that of the carrier. The distribution of the solute anion at the F/M and M/R interfaces can provide the equilibrium relationship [36, 69]. The equilibrium may be presumably expressed by the distribution coefficients, mf and m at the F/M and M/R interfaces, respectively and these are defined as... 

This book provides a general introduction to membrane science and technology. Chapters 2 to 4 cover membrane science, that is, topics that are basic to all membrane processes, such as transport mechanisms, membrane preparation, and boundary layer effects. The next six chapters cover the industrial membrane separation processes, which represent the heart of current membrane technology. Carrier facilitated transport is covered next, followed by a chapter reviewing the medical applications of membranes. The book closes with a chapter that describes various minor or yet-to-be-developed membrane processes, including membrane reactors, membrane contactors and piezodialysis. 

To-be-developed industrial membrane separation technologies Carrier facilitated transport Membrane contactors Piezodialysis, etc. Major problems remain to be solved before industrial systems will be installed on a large scale... 

Facilitated transport membranes can be used to separate gases membrane transport is then driven by a difference in the gas partial pressure across the membrane. Metal ions can also be selectively transported across a membrane, driven by a flow of hydrogen or hydroxyl ions in the other direction. This process is sometimes called coupled transport. Examples of carrier facilitated transport processes for gas and ion transport are shown in Figure 1.6. 

Because the carrier facilitated transport process employs a reactive carrier species, very high membrane selectivities can be achieved. These selectivities are often far larger than the selectivities achieved by other membrane processes. This one fact has maintained interest in facilitated transport for the past 30 years, but no commercial applications have developed. The principal problem is the physical instability of the liquid membrane and the chemical instability of the carrier agent. In recent years a number of potential solutions to this problem have been developed, which may yet make carrier facilitated transport a viable process. 

Figure 1.6 Schematic examples of carrier facilitated transport of gas and ions. The gas transport example shows the transport of oxygen across a membrane using hemoglobin as the carrier agent. The ion transport example shows the transport of copper ions across a membrane using a liquid ion-exchange reagent as the carrier agent...

Liquid membranes are the final membrane category. The selective barrier in these membranes is a liquid phase, usually containing a dissolved carrier that selectively reacts with a specific permeant to enhance its transport rate through the membrane. Liquid membranes are used almost exclusively in carrier facilitated transport processes, so preparation of these membranes is covered in that chapter (Chapter 11). 

Carrier facilitated transport membranes incorporate a reactive carrier in the membrane. The carrier reacts with and helps to transport one of the components of the feed across the membrane. Much of the work on carrier facilitated transport has employed liquid membranes containing a dissolved carrier agent held by capillary action in the pores of a microporous film. 

Carrier facilitated transport processes often achieve spectacular separations between closely related species because of the selectivity of the carriers. However, no coupled transport process has advanced to the commercial stage despite a steady stream of papers in the academic literature. The instability of the membranes is a major technical hurdle, but another issue has been the marginal improvements in economics offered by coupled transport processes over conventional technology such as solvent extraction or ion exchange. Major breakthroughs in performance are required to make coupled transport technology commercially competitive. 

Figure 11.5 Milestones in the development of carrier facilitated transport...

A milestone chart showing the historical development of carrier facilitated transport membranes is given in Figure 11.5. Because of the differences between coupled and facilitated transport applications these processes are described separately. Reviews of carrier facilitated transport have been given by Ho et al. [18], Cussler, Noble and Way [34-37,39], Laciak [38] and Figoli et al. [40],... 

Carrier facilitated transport involves a combination of chemical reaction and diffusion. One way to model the process is to calculate the equilibrium between the various species in the membrane phase and to link them by the appropriate rate expressions to the species in adjacent feed and permeate solutions. An expression for the concentration gradient of each species across the membrane is then calculated and can be solved to give the membrane flux in terms of the diffusion coefficients, the distribution coefficients, and the rate constants for all the species involved in the process [41,42], Unfortunately, the resulting expressions are too complex to be widely used. 

As with coupled transport, two assumptions are made to simplify the treatment first, that the rate of chemical reaction is fast compared to the rate of diffusion across the membrane, and second, that the amount of material transported by carrier facilitated transport is much larger than that transported by normal passive diffusion, which is ignored. The facilitated transport process can then be represented schematically as shown in Figure 11.17. 

Carrier Facilitated Transport Oxygen/Nitrogen Separations... 

Carrier facilitated transport membranes have been the subject of serious study for more than 30 years, but no commercial process has resulted. These membranes are a popular topic with academic researchers, because spectacular separations can be achieved with simple laboratory equipment. Unfortunately, converting these laboratory results into practical processes requires the solution of a number of intractable technological problems. 

Carrier facilitated transport (CFT) Ion conduction Ion exchange Affinity separation... 

Carrier-facilitated transport is used successfully to extract various organic and inorganic substances from a feed mixture in liquid membranes. Liquid membranes are employed as bulk liquid membranes, emulsion liquid membranes, and supported liquid membranes. 

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