Osmosis dialysis

Because osmotic pressures can be experimentally measured down to rather low values, the Van t Hoff equation proves to be valuable for determining the molecular weights of proteins and other high polymers, as illustrated in Sidebar 7.13. Other practical aspects of osmosis, dialysis, and reverse osmosis phenomena in the physiological and industrial domain are described briefly in Sidebar 7.14. 

Reverse osmosis and normal osmosis (dialysis) are directly related processes. In simple terms, if a selective membrane (i.e., a membrane freely permeable to water, but much less permeable to salt) separates a salt solution from pure water, water will pass through the membrane from the pure water side of the membrane into the side less concentrated in water (salt side) as shown in Figure 2.8. This process is called normal osmosis. If a hydrostatic pressure is applied to the salt side of the membrane, the flow of water can be retarded and, when the applied pressure is sufficient, the flow ceases. The hydrostatic pressure required to stop... 

Figure 2.8 A schematic illustration of the relationship between osmosis (dialysis), os motic equilibrium and reverse osmosis...

B. Baum, W. Holley, Jr and R.A. White, Hollow Fibres in Reverse Osmosis, Dialysis, and Ultrafiltration, in Membrane Separation Processes, P. Meares (ed.), Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 187-228 (1976). 

However, the use of permeable and semipermeable membranes in microfilters, ultrafilters, osmosis, reverse osmosis, dialysis (which are comparatively newer methods of separation) has problems like high capital costs, low mass transfer rate, low selectivity, and large equipment size. 

Cellulose acetate Gas separation, reverse osmosis, dialysis, ultrafiltration, microfiltration... 

Membranes can be prepared to permit the passage of other molecules and micro-molecular material. Because of permeability effects, concentration diffferences at a membrane give rise to a whole range of membrane-equilibrium studies, of which osmosis, dialysis, and ultrafiltration are examples. See also semipermeable membrane. 

Membranes used in microfiltration, reverse osmosis, dialysis, and gas separation are usually prepared by the wet-extrusion process, since it can be used to produce almost every membrane morphology. In the process, homogeneous solutions of the polymers are made in solvent and nonsolvent mixtures, while phase inversion is achieved by any of the several processes, such as solvent evaporation, exposure to excess nonsolvent, and thermal gelation. In most formulations, polymer solutions of 15-40 wt% concentration are cast or spun and subsequently coagulated in a bath containing a nonsolvent (usually water). 

Membranes are available for a large number of research and industrial applications including gas separation, fuel cells, reverse osmosis, dialysis, sensors, and purification. They also serve as the support for special processes like the oxidation reduction processes in photosynthesis or cellcell communication. 

We study first liquid separation through practically nonporous membranes and then we move on to porous membranes. Of the known techniques using nonporous membranes, (reverse osmosis, dialysis, liquid membrane permeation and pervaporation), we select the most common, reverse osmosis, to begin our study of integrated flux expression development. Pervaporation is considered next There is one feature which is, however, common to almost all nonporous membrane processes i.e. the additional phase, the membrane phase, is stationary in general (except in cases of rapid transient membrane swelling or emulsion liquid membranes). This is in contrast to molecular diffusion processes in a gas or liquid where all species can diffuse (they may or may not). 

Acrylonitrile fibers treated with hydroxides have been reported to be useful for adsorption of uranium from seawater (105). Tubular fibers for reverse osmosis gas separations, ion exchange, ultrafiltration, and dialysis are a significant new appHcation of acryUc fibers and other synthetics. Commercial acryUc fibers have already been developed by Nippon Zeon, Asahi, and Rhc ne-Poulenc. 

In open fibers the fiber wall may be a permselective membrane, and uses include dialysis, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, Dorman exchange (dialysis), osmotic pumping, pervaporation, gaseous separation, and stream filtration. Alternatively, the fiber wall may act as a catalytic reactor and immobilization of catalyst and enzyme in the wall entity may occur. Loaded fibers are used as sorbents, and in ion exchange and controlled release. Special uses of hoUow fibers include tissue-culture growth, heat exchangers, and others. 

The seminal discovery that transformed membrane separation from a laboratory to an industrial process was the development, in the early 1960s, of the Loeb-Sourirajan process for making defect-free, high flux, asymmetric reverse osmosis membranes (5). These membranes consist of an ultrathin, selective surface film on a microporous support, which provides the mechanical strength. The flux of the first Loeb-Sourirajan reverse osmosis membrane was 10 times higher than that of any membrane then avaUable and made reverse osmosis practical. The work of Loeb and Sourirajan, and the timely infusion of large sums of research doUars from the U.S. Department of Interior, Office of Saline Water (OSW), resulted in the commercialization of reverse osmosis (qv) and was a primary factor in the development of ultrafiltration (qv) and microfiltration. The development of electro dialysis was also aided by OSW funding. 

Ultrafiltration is a pressure-driven filtration separation occurring on a molecular scale (see Dialysis Filtration Hollow-fibermembranes Membrane TECHNOLOGY REVERSE osMOSis). Typically, a liquid including small dissolved molecules is forced through a porous membrane. Large dissolved molecules, coUoids, and suspended soHds that caimot pass through the pores are retained. 

Membrane Filtration. Membrane filtration describes a number of weU-known processes including reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, microfiltration, and electro dialysis. The basic principle behind this technology is the use of a driving force (electricity or pressure) to filter... 

The individual membrane filtration processes are defined chiefly by pore size although there is some overlap. The smallest membrane pore size is used in reverse osmosis (0.0005—0.002 microns), followed by nanofiltration (0.001—0.01 microns), ultrafHtration (0.002—0.1 microns), and microfiltration (0.1—1.0 microns). Electro dialysis uses electric current to transport ionic species across a membrane. Micro- and ultrafHtration rely on pore size for material separation, reverse osmosis on pore size and diffusion, and electro dialysis on diffusion. Separation efficiency does not reach 100% for any of these membrane processes. For example, when used to desalinate—soften water for industrial processes, the concentrated salt stream (reject) from reverse osmosis can be 20% of the total flow. These concentrated, yet stiH dilute streams, may require additional treatment or special disposal methods. 

Common membrane processes include ultrafiltration (UF), reverse osmosis (RO), electro dialysis (ED), and electro dialysis reversal (EDR). These processes (with the exception of UF) remove most ions RO and UF systems also provide efficient removal of nonionized organics and particulates. Because UF membrane porosity is too large for ion rejection, the UF process is used to remove contaminants, such as oil and grease, and suspended soHds. 

Electrodialysis. In reverse osmosis pressure achieves the mass transfer. In electro dialysis (qv), dc is appHed to a series of alternating cationic and anionic membranes. Anions pass through the anion-permeable membranes but are prevented from migrating by the cationic permeable membranes. Only ionic species are separated by this method, whereas reverse osmosis can deal with nonionic species. The advantages and disadvantages of reverse osmosis are shared by electro dialysis. 

Reverse Osmosis Membrane Cleaning. Citric acid solutions are used to remove iron, calcium, and other cations that foul ceUulose acetate and other membranes in reverse osmosis and electro dialysis systems. Citric acid solutions can solubilize and remove these cations without damaging the membranes (94—96). 

Less eommon means of separation, e.g. dialysis, ion-exehange, osmosis, ehromatography, eleetrophoresis. 

Stripping Ultrafiltration, see Dialysis, Reverse osmosis Ammonia removal, solvent removal... 

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