Assessment of the Total Volume Membrane Charge Density through Mathematical Modeling for Separation of Succinic Acid Aqueous Solutions on Ceramic Nanofiltration Membrane

Design of membrane systems

Membrane separation systems have been used in process industry since decades; however, their designs are based mainly on experienced-based and use of trial-and-error approach, especially in case of membrane selection. This chapter reviews recent advancements in the design of membrane systems used either for separation or creation of mixtures from the perspective of industry 4.0 and data management. Additionally, computer-aided design tools have been reviewed with aim of possible use in the design of membrane separation systems.

Euler’s Numerical Method for Ions Rejection Reassessment of a Defect-Free Synthesized Nanofiltration Membrane with Ultrathin Titania Film as the Selective Layer

Titanium (Ti) nanoparticles (NPs) were successfully seeded on the platform of a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) ultrafiltration (UF) membrane previously coated with bio-glue (a co-deposition of dopamine hydrochloric bicarbonate buffer having undergone pyrocatechol deprotonation). The tools in vogue, especially field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and atomic force microscopy (AFM), have made it possible to fully characterize the structure of the new organic-inorganic nanofiltration (NF) membrane, namely NF_PAN_Ti. A soft computing model has been applied to make commonplace the complex and implicit extended Nernst–Planck equations that govern the transport of ions through NF membranes. Euler’s numerical method was applied with a small step-size and the results obtained were very interesting. The filtration velocity approach of GUEROUT-ELFORD-FERRY helped to estimate the average pore size of NF_PAN_Ti to rp = 0.538 nm. A six-day test carried out on NF_PAN_Ti demonstrated its long-term stability and showed a steady-rejection rate of 89.3% of MgCl2 salt and permeate flux of 56 L·m−2·h−1. The Euler’ numerical method corroborated perfectly the experimental findings since the relative error was found to be very low at 0.33% for Cl− and 0.09% for Mg2+ (RE << 0.1). These practical prediction tools may henceforth help in the choice and calibration of next-generation NF membranes’ synthesis.

Special Issue on “Chemical Process Design, Simulation and Optimization”

Since humanity has been able to transform materials, such as raw minerals, and produce food or beverages, a central question was the type of operation and how and where it should be performed [...]

Effect of pH on Total Volume Membrane Charge Density in the Nanofiltration of Aqueous Solutions of Nitrate Salts of Heavy Metals

The separation efficiencies of aqueous solutions containing nitric salts of Zn, Cu, Fe or Pb at various pH in process of nanofiltration have been investigated experimentally. These results were used to obtain the total volume membrane charge densities, through mathematical modelling based on the Donnan-Steric partitioning Model. The experimentally obtained retention values of individual heavy metal ions varied between 36% (Zn2+ at pH = 2), 57% (Pb2+ at pH = 2), 80% (Fe3+ at pH = 9), and up to 97% (Cu2+ at pH = 9). The mathematical modelling allowed for fitting the total volume membrane charge density (Xd), which yielded values ranging from -451.90 to +900.16 mol/m3 for different non-symmetric ions. This study presents the application of nanofiltration (NF) modelling, including a consideration of each ion present in the NF system-even those originating from solutions used to adjust the pH values of the feed.