Membrane Science Commons^™

Plasmonic Pervaporation For Sustainable Mixture Separation, Ty Austin

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The U.S. Department of Energy suggests that ca. 40% of the total energy consumed in the chemical and refining industries is used for distillation.¹ One potentially energy efficient alternative is pervaporation, a membrane separation process that uses differences in solvent permeability and vaporization rates to encourage mixture separation. Pervaporation has become a valuable tool in the processes of producing biofuels, recovering water, and removing solvent.^2,3 However, implementation has been hindered by heating the feed to the membrane and cooling the unpermeated retentate to increase membrane throughput at a higher energy cost. Preliminary research has shown that locally heating …

Preparation Of Nano-Size Ceramic Membrane From Industrial Waste, Shereen K. Amin, Mai H. Roushdy, Chakinaz Aly El-Sherbiny, Heba Mohamed Abdallah, Magdi F. Abadir

Chemical Engineering

Industrial ceramic wastes are becoming an increasing problem worldwide. Recently, this problem has attracted social concern due to the growing amounts of waste despite the measures and precautions that have been taken worldwide aiming at managing such wastes. One promising solution that has been recently researched consists incorporating such wastes in ceramic bodies which besides minimizing the waste load often improve the quality of the ceramic body. Roller kilns used in the production of ceramic tiles are routinely ground to remove traces of contamination. The fine ground powder is usually discarded as a useless waste. In the present paper, the …

Micellular Electrokinetic Chromatography For Studying Amyloid Beta Oligomer Membrane Affinity, Andrew Bryson

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Amyloid Beta (Aβ) was the major focus of this study. It is a peptide that is present in the brain with a high tendency to self-aggregate. When this protein aggregates, it forms oligomers and protofibrils which in turn are deposited as senile plaques in the brain. The reason for the concern with these plaques is their association with the neurological disorder Alzheimer’s disease. It has been found that the most dangerous oligomers are formed in a portion of the plasma membrane known as lipid rafts. The purpose of this study was to understand how micelles affect the aggregation properties of …

Development Of Pvdf Membrane Nanocomposites Via Various Functionalization Approaches For Environmental Applications, Douglas M. Davenport, Minghui Gui, Lindell E. Ormsbee, Dibakar Bhattacharyya

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Membranes are finding wide applications in various fields spanning biological, water, and energy areas. Synthesis of membranes to provide tunable flux, metal sorption, and catalysis has been done through pore functionalization of microfiltration (MF) type membranes with responsive behavior. This methodology provides an opportunity to improve synthetic membrane performance via polymer fabrication and surface modification. By optimizing the polymer coagulation conditions in phase inversion fabrication, spongy polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes with high porosity and large internal pore volume were created in lab and full scale. This robust membrane shows a promising mechanical strength as well as high capacity for loading …

An Overview Of Production And Development Of Ceramic Membranes, Shereen Kamel Amin, Heba Mohamed Abdallah, Mai H. Roushdy, Chakinaz Aly El-Sherbiny

Chemical Engineering

Ceramic membranes became one of the most important ceramic products because of their numerous benefits. Many attempts have been made by researchers to produce ceramic membranes with modified properties by varying their raw materials. Some of these attempts included incorporating wastes into their production process. Examples of such waste are fly ash wastes, glass waste, mud resulting from the hydro cyclone laundries, cortical bone animal, coal gangue, sawdust, construction waste and rice husk. An ideal waste would be priceless waste while at the same time assisting minimizing pollution. Such a situation deals with a dual economic and environmental aspect. This …

Design And Commissioning Of A Community Scale Solar Powered Membrane-Based Water Purification System In Haiti, Shavin Pinto, Yung Wong, Kyle Fennesy, Yan Tang, Marc Compere

Publications

This paper presents the design and commissioning of a solar powered water purification system at the Ryan Epps Home for Children (REHC) in Michaud, Haiti. This system supplies clean drinking water to the 200 children who live and go to school at REHC and also to the community in the form of a micro-business. This micro-business is the mechanism for income generation for sustainable system operation. The purifier uses a three stage filtration system with a disc-type sediment filter, a 0.1 micron ultrafiltration membrane, and an ultraviolet light for disinfection. The backwash cycle extends the life of the ultrafiltration membrane …

Separation Of Oil From A Brackish Water Stream, Kayli A. Quinton

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

In the past 40 years, a variety of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods have been developed and applied to mature and mostly depleted oil reservoirs. Chemical and sonic stimulation are two enhanced oil recovery methods in which emulsions are created either as a primary or secondary effect. The resulting emulsion viscosity is considerably lower than that of dry crude thus increasing permeability of and recovery from pay zones. During Chemical enhanced oil recovery, caustic or preformed surfactants are injected into oil reservoirs, which results in flooding and periodic breakthrough of stable oil-water emulsions. The emulsions from chemical enhanced oil recovery …

Evapoporometry: An Effective Analytical Technique For Membrane Pore Size Characterization Of Hollow Fiber Membranes, Alex J. Moix

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

A new analytical technique called evapoporometry has shown to be an effective and inexpensive method for membrane pore size characterization. This technique is based on the correlation between vapor pressure and pore size as described by the Kelvin equation. Evapoporometry has many advantages over tradition pore size characterization techniques. This technique allows for large sample sizes, uses minimal equipment, is capable of analyzing membranes within a wide range of pore sizes, and provides a highly descriptive representation of the pore distribution. This research looks at the application of evapoporometry as a technique for characterization of hollow fiber membranes. Using the …

Effects Of Magnetically Induced Micro-Mixing On Nanofiltration Performance, Guanghui Song

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nanofiltration (NF) is a relatively new membrane separation process mainly used for removing low molecular weight species from aqueous and non-aqueous solutions. NF membranes suffer from concentration polarization leading to membrane fouling thus compromised membrane performance. Magnetically responsive nanofiltration (NF) membranes functionalized with superparamagnetic nanoparticles (SPNs) attached to the chain ends of grafted polymer nanolayers have been shown to be effective in breaking concentration polarization at the membrane-liquid interface under an appropriate external oscillating magnetic field. Under an oscillating magnetic field, the movement of the polymer chains acts as micro-mixer leading to the suppression of concentration polarization and improved filtration …

Modified Polysulfone Nanofiltration Membrane Synthesis For Hydraulic Fracturing Water Recycle, Blake Alexander Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of hydraulic fracturing has resulted in significant increases in the yield of oil and natural gas, as water pumped into wells at high pressure cracks the formations and releases the hydrocarbons that are locked in the rocks. This process has created large volumes of brackish water that is very difficult to process and is often disposed of into injection wells. Suspended solids and some dissolved solids are more readily removed, but the multivalent ions found in certain salts can precipitate in a well and complicate the reuse of flowback in future hydraulic fracturing operations.

Nanofiltration, a membrane separation …

Elevated Test Pressure Significantly Reduces Dynamic Accumulation Oxygen Transmission Rate (Astm F3136) Measurement Time For Barrier Packaging Films, Bruce A. Welt

Journal of Applied Packaging Research

Measurement of gas transmission rates of materials is important for successful package design. The dynamic accumulation (DA) method (ASTM F3136) is becoming increasingly popular for measuring oxygen transmission rate (OTR) due to its simplicity and low cost. However, measurement time increases with barrier properties of materials, limiting measurement throughput. A dynamic accumulation measurement prototype capable of operating up to 1,000 psig was developed in order to accelerate gas transfer by boosting concentration gradients via elevated absolute pressures. Results show that measurement results were independent of test pressure while measurement times were substantially reduced. These results also suggest that gas transmission …

Enhancing Grain Boundary Ionic Conductivity In Mixed Ionic–Electronic Conductors, Ye Lin, Shumin Fang, Dong Su, Kyle S. Brinkman, Fanglin Chen

Faculty Publications

Mixed ionic–electronic conductors are widely used in devices for energy conversion and storage. Grain boundaries in these materials have nanoscale spatial dimensions, which can generate substantial resistance to ionic transport due to dopant segregation. Here, we report the concept of targeted phase formation in a Ce0.8Gd0.2O2−δ–CoFe2O4 composite that serves to enhance the grain boundary ionic conductivity. Using transmission electron microscopy and spectroscopy approaches, we probe the grain boundary charge distribution and chemical environments altered by the phase reaction between the two constituents. The formation of an emergent phase successfully avoids segregation of the Gd dopant and depletion of oxygen vacancies …

Designed Synthesis Of Nanoporous Organic Polymers For Selective Gas Uptake And Catalytic Applications, Pezhman Arab

Theses and Dissertations

Design and synthesis of porous organic polymers have attracted considerable attentions during the past decade due to their wide range of applications in gas storage, gas separation, energy conversion, and catalysis. Porous organic polymers can be pre-synthetically and post-synthetically functionalized with a wide variety of functionalities for desirable applications. Along these pursuits, we introduced new synthetic strategies for preparation of porous organic polymers for selective CO₂ capture.

Porous azo-linked polymers (ALPs) were synthesized by an oxidative reaction of amine-based monomers using copper(I) as a catalyst which leads to azo-linkage formation. ALPs exhibit high surface areas of up to 1200 …

Modeling Of Nitrogen Separation From Natural Gas Through Nanoporous Carbon Membranes, Moustafa A. Soliman, A A. Al-Rabiah, Abdelhamid M. Ajbar, F A. Almalki, Omar Y. Abdelaziz

Chemical Engineering

This work presents a theoretical investigation of the use of nanoporous carbon membranes for the separation of nitrogen from natural gas. A mathematical model to predict the performance of the membrane is developed. The model is a combination of the well known dusty gas model, which describes the transfer of multi-components mixture in porous media, together with a surface diffusion model. The model is first validated using the literature results for the separation of hydrogen from hydrocarbons mixture. The model is then applied to the nitrogen-hydrocarbons system. The membrane performance is evaluated in terms of nitrogen recovery, methane loss, nitrogen …

Long Term Blood Oxygenation Membranes, Joseph V. Alexander

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

Hollow fiber membranes are widely used in blood oxygenators to remove carbon dioxide and add oxygen during cardiopulmonary bypass operations. These devices are now widely used off-label by physicians to perform extracorporeal blood oxygenation for patients with lung failure. Unfortunately, the hollow fiber membranes used in these devices fail prematurely due to blood plasma leakage and gas emboli formation.

This project formed ultrathin (~100nm) polymer coatings on polymer hollow fiber membranes. The coatings were intended to “block” existing pores on the exterior surfaces while permitting high gas fluxes. This coating is synthesized using surface imitated control radical polymerization.

The coating …

Biomolecule Localization And Surface Engineering Within Size Tunable Nanoporous Silica Particles, Daniel M. Schlipf

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Mesoporous silica materials are versatile platforms for biological catalysis, isolation of small molecules for detection and separation applications. The design of mesoporous silica supports for tailored protein and biomolecule interactions has been limited by the techniques to demonstrate biomolecule location and functionality as a function of pore size. This work examines the interaction of proteins and lipid bilayers with engineered porous silica surfaces using spherical silica particles with tunable pore diameters (3 – 12 nm) in the range relevant to biomolecule uptake in the pores, and large particle sizes (5 - 15 µm) amenable to microscopy imaging

The differentiation of …

Recycling Wastewater For Hydraulic Fracturing By Use Of Nanofiltration Membranes, Haley D. Cleous

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Hydraulic fracturing creates large volumes of produced water, contaminated with organics, suspended solids, and dissolved minerals. This water must either be disposed of in injection wells or treated for reuse. One option is to use a combination of ultrafiltration and nanofiltration to treat this water and reuse it in future hydraulic fracturing wells. The object of this study was to test and characterize commercial nanofiltration membranes. The work done for this project will lead to future work in modifying membranes to improve the rejection of desired components.

Effect Of Plasticizer On Oxygen Permeability Of Cast Polylactic Acid (Pla) Films Determined Using Dynamic Accumulation Method, Kurniawan Yuniarto, Bruce A. Welt, Aris Purwanto, Hadi Karia Purwadaria, Ayman Abdellatief, Titi C. Sunarti, Setyo Purwanto

Journal of Applied Packaging Research

Polylactic acid (PLA) is becoming an increasingly important biopolymer for packaging applications. PLA brittleness limits its applicability. This study evaluated PLA properties with increasing amounts of added polyethylene glycol (PEG) plasticizer. Oxygen transmission rate (OTR) of cast films was determined using the newly available Dynamic Accumulation (DA) method. Arrhenius temperature sensitivity of OTR and polymer Permeability was also determined. Permeability of neat PLA is 4.848 ml mm (STP)/m² s kPa; hence, 4.84 ml mm (STP)/m² s kPa, 4.07 ml mm (STP)/m² s kPa and 5.42 ml mm (STP)/m² s kPa by adding PEG 1 %, 5% …

Membrane Compatibility With Switchable Polarity Draw Solutions For Use In Forward Osmosis Applications, Benjamin Joseph Coscia

Honors Scholar Theses

Water scarcity is problem being faced worldwide and present in every continent. Close to one-fifth of the world’s population has difficulty acquiring safe water, and the problem is worsening as populations continue to grow in poorer countries. As the availability of unimpaired freshwater sources dwindle, water sources, such as the oceans and saline ground waters, must be tapped. However, desalination technologies are very expensive due to a high energy requirement. Forward osmosis (FO) is a process which may be able to replace or become integrated with existing desalination technologies like reverse osmosis. FO relies on an osmotic agent, or draw …

Phase Transformations In Calcium Substituted Lanthanum Ferrite, Patrick M. Price

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Increasing world energy demands are still heavily dependent on fossil fuels. To meet these demands, crude oil is increasingly being extracted from remote locations where natural gas pipelines do not exist. It is not profitable for oil and gas companies to transport natural gas by ship or truck from these remote locations so it is combusted on site in the form of gas flares. Critics oppose this practice due to the environmental impact from pollution and carbon emissions created during the flaring process. Oil and gas companies are eager to find profitable ways to eliminate natural gas lines in order …