Stability ultrafiltration

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. 

Membranes used for the pressure driven separation processes, microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO), as well as those used for dialysis, are most commonly made of polymeric materials. Initially most such membranes were cellulosic in nature. These ate now being replaced by polyamide, polysulphone, polycarbonate and several other advanced polymers. These synthetic polymers have improved chemical stability and better resistance to microbial degradation. Membranes have most commonly been produced by a form of phase inversion known as immersion precipitation.11 This process has four main steps ... 

More hemodynamic stability (blood pressure) due to slow ultrafiltration rate. 

Traditionally, ultrafilters have been manufactured from cellulose acetate or cellulose nitrate. Several other materials, such as polyvinyl chloride and polycarbonate, are now also used in membrane manufacture. Such plastic-type membranes exhibit enhanced chemical and physical stability when compared with cellulose-based ultrafiltration membranes. An important prerequisite in manufacturing ultrafilters is that the material utilized exhibits low protein adsorptive properties. 

Diafiltration is a process whereby an ultrafiltration system is utilized to reduce or eliminate low molecular mass molecules from a solution and is sometimes employed as part of biopharmaceuti-cal downstream processing. In practice, this normally entails the removal of, for example, salts, ethanol and other solvents, buffer components, amino acids, peptides, added protein stabilizers or other molecules from a protein solution. Diafiltration is generally preceded by an ultrafiltration step to reduce process volumes initially. The actual diafiltration process is identical to that of ultrafiltration, except for the fact that the level of reservoir is maintained at a constant volume. This is achieved by the continual addition of solvent lacking the low molecular mass molecules that are to be removed. By recycling the concentrated material and adding sufficient fresh solvent to the system such that five times the original volume has emerged from the system as permeate, over 99... 

Solute adsorption often involves hydrophobic interactions—hydrophobic membranes have a high tendency to foul in water treatments. However, many hydrophobic membranes remain the most useful media for ultrafiltration due to their superior performance in terms of mechanical, chemical and thermal stability. 

Mitrovic and Knezic (1979) also prepared ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis membranes by this technique. Their membranes were etched in 5% oxalic acid. The membranes had pores of the order of 100 nm, but only about 1.5 nm in the residual barrier layer (layer AB in Figure 2.15). The pores in the barrier layer were unstable in water and the permeability decreased during the experiments. Complete dehydration of alumina or phase transformation to a-alumina was necessary to stabilize the pore structure. The resulting membranes were found unsuitable for reverse osmosis but suitable for ultrafiltration after removing the barrier layer. Beside reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration measurements, some gas permeability data have also been reported on this type of membranes (Itaya et al. 1984). The water flux through a 50/im thick membrane is about 0.2mL/cm -h with a N2 flow about 6cmVcm -min-bar. The gas transport through the membrane was due to Knudsen diffusion mechanism, which is inversely proportional to the square root of molecular mass. 

Unmodified poly(ethyleneimine) and poly(vinylpyrrolidinone) have also been used as polymeric ligands for complex formation with Rh(in), Pd(II), Ni(II), Pt(II) etc. aqueous solutions of these complexes catalyzed the hydrogenation of olefins, carbonyls, nitriles, aromatics etc. [94]. The products were separated by ultrafiltration while the water-soluble macromolecular catalysts were retained in the hydrogenation reactor. However, it is very likely, that during the preactivation with H2, nanosize metal particles were formed and the polymer-stabilized metal colloids [64,96] acted as catalysts in the hydrogenation of unsaturated substrates. 

The removal of macromolecules by ultrafiltration has often been used in the production of clear fruit juices and wine (Girard and Fukumoto, 2000). This treatment removes both proteins and polysaccharides. Ultrafiltration through a 10,000 Da cut-off membrane has been shown to stabilize wines against haze formation (Flores, 1990). 

Flores, J. H., Heatherbell, D. A., and McDaniel, M. R. (1990). Ultrafiltration of wine effect of ultrafiltration on White Riesling and Gewuerztraminer wine composition and stability. Am.. Enol. Vitic. 41, 207-214. 

Bitea, C., Muller, R., Neck, V., Walther, C. Kim, J. I. 2003b. Study of the generation and stability of thorium(IV) colloids by LIBD combined with ultrafiltration. Colloids Surfaces A, 215, 63-70. 

Rose, D. and Tessier, H. (1959) Composition of ultrafiltrates from milk heated at 80 to 230°F in relation to heat stability. J. Dairy Sci., 42, 969-80. 

Concentration. Concentration by thermal evaporation markedly reduces the heat stability of milk, e.g. concentrated skim milk containing about 18% total solids coagulates in roughly 10 min at 130°C. The stability of the concentrate is strongly affected by pH, with a maximum at around pH 6.6, but stability remains low at all pH values above about 6.8 (Figure 9.20). Concentration by ultrafiltration has a much smaller effect on HCT than thermal evaporation, due to a lower concentration of soluble salts in the retentate. 

Figure 9.20 Effect of total solids (TS) content on the heat stability at 130°C of skim milk , 9.3% TS , 12.0% TS O, 15.0% TS , 18.4% TS. (a) Concentrated by ultrafiltration, (b) concentrated by evaporation (from Sweetsur and Muir, 1980).

Rattray, W. and Jelen, P. (1996) Thermal stability of skim milk with protein content standardized by the addition of ultrafiltration permeates. Int. Dairy J., 6, 157-70. 

The fat globules of milk reduce the conductivity by occupying volume and by impeding the mobility of ions. Thus the conductivity of whole milk is less than that of skim milk by about 10%, and that of cream varies with the fat content (Gerber 1927 Muller 1931 Prentice 1962). Homogenization of milk does not measurably influence conductivity (Prentice 1962). The conductivity of whey and ultrafiltrate is slightly greater than that of skim milk (Schulz 1956 Schulz and Sydow 1957). A possible relationship between the electrical conductivity and physical stability of evaporated milk and concentrated infant milk products has been reported (Hansson 1957). Samples of poor physical stability tended to have relatively low conductivity values compared to those of the more stable products. 

Lonergan, D. A. 1978. Use of electrodialysis and ultrafiltration procedures to improve protein stability of frozen concentrated milk. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison. 

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