Reverse osmosis components

Nonporous Dense Membranes. Nonporous, dense membranes consist of a dense film through which permeants are transported by diffusion under the driving force of a pressure, concentration, or electrical potential gradient. The separation of various components of a solution is related directiy to their relative transport rate within the membrane, which is determined by their diffusivity and solubiUty ia the membrane material. An important property of nonporous, dense membranes is that even permeants of similar size may be separated when their concentration ia the membrane material (ie, their solubiUty) differs significantly. Most gas separation, pervaporation, and reverse osmosis membranes use dense membranes to perform the separation. However, these membranes usually have an asymmetric stmcture to improve the flux. 

Membrane Sep r tion. The separation of components ofhquid milk products can be accompHshed with semipermeable membranes by either ultrafiltration (qv) or hyperfiltration, also called reverse osmosis (qv) (30). With ultrafiltration (UF) the membrane selectively prevents the passage of large molecules such as protein. In reverse osmosis (RO) different small, low molecular weight molecules are separated. Both procedures require that pressure be maintained and that the energy needed is a cost item. The materials from which the membranes are made are similar for both processes and include cellulose acetate, poly(vinyl chloride), poly(vinyHdene diduoride), nylon, and polyamide (see AFembrane technology). Membranes are commonly used for the concentration of whey and milk for cheesemaking (31). For example, membranes with 100 and 200 p.m are used to obtain a 4 1 reduction of skimmed milk. 

Reverse Osmosis. Membranes are used for the separation of smaller components (<500 daltons). They have smaller pore space and are tighter than those used for ultrafiltration. High pressure pumps, usually of the positive piston or multistage centrifugal type, provide pressures up to 4.14 MPa (600 psi). 

Following ultrafiltration of whey, the permeate passes over a reverse osmosis (qv) membrane to separate the lactose from other components of the permeate. Reverse osmosis can be used to remove water and concentrate soHds in a dairy plant, giving a product with 18% soHds and thus decreasing the difficulty of waste disposal. Concentration of rinse water gives a product with 4—5% total soHds. Proper maintenance of the membrane allows for use up to two years. Membranes are available for use up to 100°C with pH ranges from 1 to 14 the usual temperature range is 0—50°C. 

Reverse Osmosis. A reverse osmosis (RO) process has been developed to remove alcohol from distilled spirits without affecting the sensory properties (14). It consists of passing barrel-strength whiskey through a permeable membrane at high pressure, causing the alcohol to permeate the membrane and concentrating the flavor components in the retentate. 

Operational temperatures of 4—27°C are maintained. In this process the flavor components are concentrated in the retentate. A reduced alcohol product is obtained by adding back water to give the desired flavor impact. Typical gas chromatographic results, comparing unprocessed 80° proof whiskey with reverse osmosis processed 54° proof whiskey and diluted 54° proof whiskey, indicate good congener retention in the alcohol-reduced (RO) processed whiskey (Table 7). 

Hydrocomponents Technologies, Inc. Site describes products supplied for commercial, industrial and residential applications membrane production equipment components for manufacturers of reverse osmosis systems. http //www.hcti.com... 

Peivaporation is a relatively new process that has elements in common with reverse osmosis and gas separation. In peivaporation, a liquid mixture contacts one side of a membrane, and the driving force for the process is low vapour pressure on the permeate side of the membrane generated by cooling and condensing the permeate vapour. The attraction of peivaporation is that the separation obtained is proportional to the rate of permeation of the components of the liquid mixture through the selective membrane. Therefore, peivaporation offers the possibility of separating closely boiling mixtures or azeotropes that are difficult to separate by distillation... 

Hyperfiltration (Reverse Osmosis) is a form of membrane distillation or desalination (desalting) operating with membrane pore sizes of perhaps 1 to 10 Angstrom units. The various individual RO component technologies have improved tremendously over the last 20 to 25 years, and resistance to fouling and permeate output rates have benefited. Nevertheless, all RO plants remain susceptible to the risk of fouling, and adequate pretreatment and operation is essential to minimize this problem. 

Design Considerations for RO Reverse osmosis plants are typically assembled onto carbon steel or stainless steel frames using permutations of components from the hundreds of individual standard stock items commonly available, including a wide range of membranes, each with their own range of design features and applications. 

This can be further integrated from the wall to the boundary layer thickness y = 8, where the component is at the bulk concentration Cj,. Substituting / = - o and k = D/o, the mass-transfer coefficient yields the stagnant film model [Brian, Desalination by Reverse Osmosis, Merten (ed.), M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1966, pp. 161-292] ... 

The thermodynamic approach does not make explicit the effects of concentration at the membrane. A good deal of the analysis of concentration polarisation given for ultrafiltration also applies to reverse osmosis. The control of the boundary layer is just as important. The main effects of concentration polarisation in this case are, however, a reduced value of solvent permeation rate as a result of an increased osmotic pressure at the membrane surface given in equation 8.37, and a decrease in solute rejection given in equation 8.38. In many applications it is usual to pretreat feeds in order to remove colloidal material before reverse osmosis. The components which must then be retained by reverse osmosis have higher diffusion coefficients than those encountered in ultrafiltration. Hence, the polarisation modulus given in equation 8.14 is lower, and the concentration of solutes at the membrane seldom results in the formation of a gel. For the case of turbulent flow the Dittus-Boelter correlation may be used, as was the case for ultrafiltration giving a polarisation modulus of ... 

Dense membranes are used for pervaporation, as for reverse osmosis, and the process can be described by a solution-diffusion model. That is, in an ideal case there is equilibrium at the membrane interfaces and diffusional transport of components through the bulk of the membrane. The activity of a component on the feed side of the membrane is proportional to the composition of that component in the feed solution. 

The composition at the permeate-phase interface depends on the partial pressure and saturation vapour pressure of the component. Solvent composition within the membrane may vary considerably between the feed and permeate sides interface in pervaporation. By lowering the pressure at the permeate side, very low concentrations can be achieved while the solvent concentration on the feed-side can be up to 90 per cent by mass. Thus, in contrast to reverse osmosis, where such differences are not observed in practice, the modelling of material transport in pervaporation must take into account the concentration dependence of the diffusion coefficients. 

Generally, a distinction can be made between membrane bioreactors based on cells performing a desired conversion and processes based on enzymes. In ceU-based processes, bacteria, plant and mammalian cells are used for the production of (fine) chemicals, pharmaceuticals and food additives or for the treatment of waste streams. Enzyme-based membrane bioreactors are typically used for the degradation of natural polymeric materials Hke starch, cellulose or proteins or for the resolution of optically active components in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, food and chemical industry [50, 51]. In general, only ultrafiltration (UF) or microfiltration (MF)-based processes have been reported and little is known on the application of reverse osmosis (RO) or nanofiltration (NF) in membrane bioreactors. Additionally, membrane contactor systems have been developed, based on micro-porous polyolefin or teflon membranes [52-55]. 

The solute-solvent-polymer (membrane material) interactions, similar to those governing the effect of structure on reactivity of molecules (20,21,22,23,24) arise in general from polar-, sterlc-, nonpolar-, and/or ionic-character of each one of the three components In the reverse osmosis system. The overall result of such interactions determines whether solvent, or solute, or neither is preferentially sorbed at the membrane-solution Interface. 

With particular reference to reverse osmosis systems involving cellulose acetate membranes and aqueous solutions, the membrane material has both polar and nonpolar character, and the solvent, of course, is polar. When these two components of the reverse osmosis system are kept constant, preferential sorption at the membrane-solution interface, and, in turn, solute separation in reverse osmosis, may be expected to be controlled by the chemical nature of the solute. If the latter can be expressed by appropriate quantitative physicochemical parameters representing polar-, steric-, nonpolar-, and/or ionic-character of the solutes, then one can expect unique correlations to exist between such parameters and reverse osmosis data on solute separations for each membrane. Experimental results confirm that such is indeed the case (18). 

It has been demonstrated by Sourlrajan (7 ) that the ability of solution components to establish a sorbed layer on the membrane surface plays a significant role in reverse osmosis separations. 

Reverse osmosis procedures concentrate over 90% of the total organic material present in water into an aqueous brine (29). A problem has been the efficient transfer of the organic components to a solvent suitable for the bioassays (30). Another problem is the loss of chemicals having molecular weights below 200-400. 

The wastewater at an aircraft-component manufacturing plant contained free and emulsihed oil. The water was treated using 454 kg of organoclay followed by a reverse-osmosis system. The organoclay portion of the treatment train cost 5000. The organoclay was replaced once a year. Replacement and disposal costs was approximately 3000 (D17267S, p. 30). 

To ensure the successful design of a reverse osmosis process, several factors should be considered. These considerations encompass the feed solution, the membrane module, and the use of other processes in the pre- and post-treatment processes. A thorough knowledge of the feed stream and its components is essential to the prevention of membrane damage and product impurities. Once the feed stream is characterized and the process objective is defined, design can be initiated. 

Reverse-Osmosis Studies. The various components of the RO equipment were thoroughly cleaned with acetone and hexane before assembly. After assembly the system was further cleaned by successive circulation of hexane, ethanol, 102 aqueous ethanol (1 X 4 h each), and finally purified water (3 X 10 h). 

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