Investigating the transportation of nonpolar solvent mixtures through organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membranes

• Main Author: Pan, Yanxin
• Other Authors: She Qianhong
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Engineering; OSN membranes; Transport
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/177408
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Organic Solvent Nanofiltration (OSN) is a pressure-driven membrane process that is used in solvent separation and recovery. This project aims to study the solvent transportation and separation performance of commercial OSN membranes (GMT-oNF-2 membranes, purchased from BORSIG Membrane Technologies) for nonpolar solvent mixtures. Different characterization tests for OSN membranes, each with a different purpose, were utilized to investigate the membrane physiochemical properties. The field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), the fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and water contact angle measurement were applied to assess the membrane’s surface morphologies, cross-sectional structure, chemical composition, and hydrophobicity degree, revealing an essential relationship between membrane physiochemical properties and solvent transport behaviors through the membrane. Permeability of pure solvents and molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of GMT-oNF-2 membranes were tested and calculated for different nonpolar solvents. Finally, rejection of GMT-oNF-2 membrane to hydrocarbon molecules was conducted to assess the membrane efficiency in separating organic compounds. GMT-oNF-2 membrane is evaluated to have high MWCO values and has higher permeability rates to pure solvents. Moreover, the hydrophobic GMT-oNF-2 membrane has a low rejection rate to hydrocarbon mixtures due to several factors. This study offered a comprehensive understanding of nonpolar solvent transportation through commercial OSN membranes, provided insights into the application limitations of current commercia OSN membranes, which calls the need of developing innovative OSN membranes to separate nonpolar mixtures with ideal performance.