Membrane Science Commons^™

Fabrication Of Thin-Film Composite, Reverse-Osmosis Membranes With Polyethylenimine Modifications For Enhancing Membrane Fouling Resistance, Stephanie N. Hamilton

Master's Theses

Increasing water reuse opportunities for communities has become increasingly important as access to clean water is becoming more scarce. Reverse Osmosis (RO) is an advanced treatment technology used in water recycling wastewater for potable reuse applications. RO is a promising technology; however, the membranes have limitations including their high energy demand and their susceptibility to membrane fouling. The main objective of this study was to develop a reproducible method for the fabrication of RO membranes with enhanced flux and reduced susceptibility to fouling. Literature contains numerous publications on fabrication of thin film composite (TFC) RO membranes with high performance. However, …

Application Of The Core Shell Model For Strengthening Polymer Filament Interfaces, Yu-Chung Lin, Aniket Raut, Yiwei Fang, Yifan Yin, David Sprouster, Tai-De Li, Guillaume Freychet, Mikhail Zhernenkov, Steve Nitodas, Jonathan Sokolov, Yuval Shmueli, Miriam Rafailovich

Advanced Science Research Center

While surface segregation has been intensively studied in thin films, relatively little has been investigated in filament geometries. In contrast to thin films, the filament surface forms a continuum, with interactions both at the free air and internal filament interface, which makes it difficult to achieve an equilibrium configuration. This asymmetry has become particularly apparent with the increasing use of additive manufacturing where entire structures are constructed via layered deposition of filamentous layers from a moving thermal nozzle. In addition, this process is highly non-equilibrated with poor thermal retention and is responsible for insufficient filament–filament interfacial fusion and internal pore …

Mesures À Haute Sensibilité Du Passage De Contaminants Nanométriques À Travers Les Gants De Protection Par Imagerie Médicale, Mahmoud Mohamed Omar, Amélie Augé, Myriam Laprise-Pelletier, Ludovic Tuduri, Marc-André Fortin

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Les gants de polymère sont utilisés comme équipements de protection individuels dans de nombreux secteurs d’activité professionnelle où les risques chimiques sont présents. Leur efficacité à bloquer le passage de certains contaminants doit être mesurée par des méthodes d’essais précises et standardisées. Les mesures de résistance chimique sont généralement effectuées en utilisant une cellule de perméation, un petit appareil contenant deux réservoirs séparés par la membrane dont on veut mesurer le potentiel-barrière : l’un contient le contaminant, l’autre contient un milieu collectant le contaminant après que celui-ci ait passé à travers la membrane. Au fur et à mesure de l’expérience, …

Impact Of Spray Coating On The Performance Of Hydrophobic Membranes, Dominick J. Maiorano, Hamid Fattahijuybari, David Warsinger

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

Membrane distillation (MD) is a rapidly emerging water treatment technology used to combat the global water crisis. Membrane pore wetting is a primary barrier to widespread industrial use of MD. The primary causes of membrane wetting are membrane fouling and an exceedance of liquid entry pressure. The development of different types of polymer membranes and the use of pretreatment have led to significant movement towards the prevention of wetting in MD. We sought to take a new approach to combat membrane wetting that involves coating these membranes with hydrophilic chemical compounds, which consequently would decrease their air permeability. Pulling data …

Performance And Fouling During Bioreactor Harvesting, Da Zhang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tangential flow filtration has many advantages for bioreactor harvesting as the permeate could be introduced directly to the subsequent capture step, the process is easy to scale up, and fouling of the filter is limited by the cross flow. However, membrane fouling has limited its widespread use. This is particularly problematic given the high cell densities encountered today. Here a reverse asymmetric commercial membrane, BioOptimal™ MF-SL (Asahi Kasei), where the more open surface faces the feed stream, and the tighter barrier layer faces the permeate stream, has been investigated for bioreactor harvesting. The open surface contains pores up to 40 …

Development Of A New Affinity Membrane For Rapidly Purifying Non-Antibody Proteins, Friendship Edioma

All Theses

This thesis project describes the modification and evaluation of a new affinity membrane for rapid chromatographic purification of non-antibody proteins. The affinity membrane utilizes Im7/CL7 coupling technology developed by Dr. Vassylyev's lab at the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB), licensed by TriAltus Bioscience. The behavior of the membrane was evaluated using purified CL7-tagged Cas9 as my model protein for static and dynamic binding capacity analysis.

Chapter one provides an overview on biopharmaceutical drug production process development. I discuss how protein drugs are produced, isolated, and purified from the cell supernatant after upstream phases are completed. Despite increasing demands for biologics, …

Reactive Thin Film Polymers And Thin Film Composite Membranes For The Rapid Screening Of Uranium Isotopes, Abenazer W. Darge

All Dissertations

Traditional radiochemistry approaches for the detection of trace-level alpha-emitting radioisotopes in water require lengthy offsite sample preparations and do not lend themselves to rapid quantification. Therefore, a novel platform is needed that combines onsite purification, concentration, and isotopic screening with a fieldable detection system. My dissertation research objective was to develop novel reactive thin polymer films and thin film composite membranes for the selective separation of uranium from environmental water followed by direct isotopic analysis by alpha spectroscopy. Chapter 1 reviews progress made on uranium separation from aqueous matrices and discusses methods used for the determination of isotopic composition.

Chapter …

Isolation And Production Of Tandem Collagen Binding Domain From Clostridial Collagenase Colg And Developments In C1q Reagent Production For Future Molecule Characterization Work, Stephanie Beitle

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis covers a two part project: the production methods to create a double collagen binding domain molecule with a growth factor for wound healing applications and the development of a new in-house production method for isolating C1q from bovine blood. The wound healing molecule was created using transformation, sonication, and purification before being tested via electrophoresis SDS page and Western blots to confirm the molecule’s presence. The C1q in-house production method utilizes an ultrafiltration flow cell rather than dialysis at a critical point in the process, allowing for researchers to not only be able to use a single small …

Synthesis And Phase Transition Characterization Of Liquid Crystal Membranes With Slit-Like Pores, Isaac Hopwood

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Membranes with slit-like pores have been of interest for some time due to their ability to reject smaller particles than traditional cylindrical-pored membranes at the same fluid flux. However, using liquid crystals as a template for this sort of membrane has not been thoroughly investigated. In this study, the liquid crystal mixture of RM257 (2-Methyl-1,4-phenylene bis(4-(3-(acryloyloxy)propoxy)benzoate)) and 5CB (4-Cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl) for the purpose of manufacturing membranes with slit-like pores, the phase transition behavior of this LC mixture at various mole fractions of RM257, and the impact of mole fraction of RM257 in the liquid crystal (LC) mixture and membrane manufacturing conditions …

Quantification Of Slit-Like Pores Through Using Liquid Crystals As A Template, Dominique Savage

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this research is to manufacture a membrane with slit-like pores to achieve particle filtration. Slit-like pore membranes are preferred over conventional membranes with cylindrical pores since slit-like pores have two length scales that can be manipulated to better control cut off and flux through the membrane. This project focuses on manufacturing slit-like pore membranes through the use of two liquid crystals, 1,4-bis[4-(6-acryloyloxyhexyloxy)benzoyloxy]-2-methylbenzene (RM257) and 4-Cyano-4′-pentylbiphenyl (5CB). This method for making slit-like pores has not been widely investigated nor has the morphology of the membrane pores and mechanical properties of such a membrane been addressed. It was found …

Extractive Membranes For The Detection And Screening Of Waterborne Plutonium, James Foster

All Dissertations

The development of rapid screening tools for special nuclear materials remains a crucial focus for nonproliferation efforts. Traditional approaches for the analysis of trace-level Pu isotopes in water requires tedious and time-consuming sample preparation steps that do not lend well to expeditious screening. Therefore, a novel analytical method that combines both Pu concentration and source preparation into a single detection system would make for an invaluable tool for nuclear security applications. Extractive membranes absorbers can help to fulfill this role as they are capable of concentrating Pu to detectable limits while subsequently serving as alpha spectrometry sample sources. In Chapter …

Optimizing Virus Prefiltration For Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing, Solomon Isu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Virus filters are single-use devices that use a size-based separation process. In virus filters, contaminating virus particles are retained while the therapeutic molecules pass through the membrane pores. Virus filters are an essential component of the overall virus clearance strategy. Sections 1 and 2 of this dissertation provide an introduction and extensive review of monoclonal antibody (mAb) process development, where virus filtration is pivotal. In section 3, prefiltration studies were performed with an industrially relevant IgG1 type mAb using adsorptive and size-exclusion-based prefilters with different mechanisms of action. This mAb has an isoelectric point range of 7.1 to 8.0 and …

Effective Parameters Controlling Sterol Transfer: A Time‑Resolved Small‑Angle Neutron Scattering Study, Ursula Perez-Salas, Lionel Porcar, Sumit Garg, Manuela A.A. Ayee-Leong, Irena Levitan

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Though cholesterol is the most prevalent and essential sterol in mammalian cellular membranes, its precursors, post-synthesis cholesterol products, as well as its oxidized derivatives play many other important physiological roles. Using a non-invasive in situ technique, time-resolved small angle neutron scattering, we report on the rate of membrane desorption and corresponding activation energy for this process for a series of sterol precursors and post-synthesis cholesterol products that vary from cholesterol by the number and position of double bonds in B ring of cholesterol’s steroid core. In addition, we report on sterols that have oxidation modifications in ring A and ring …

Microcystin-Lr Removal From Water Via Enzymatic Linearization And Ultrafiltration, Abelline Fionah, Cannon Hackett, Hazim Aljewari, Laura Brady, Faisal Alqhtani, Isabel C. Escobar, Audie K. Thompson

Chemical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Microcystin-LR (MC-LR) is a toxin produced by cyanobacteria that can bloom in freshwater supplies. This study describes a new strategy for remediation of MC-LR that combines linearization of the toxin using microcystinase A, MlrA, enzyme with rejection of linearized byproducts using membrane filtration. The MlrA enzyme was expressed in Escherichia coli (E. coli) and purified via a His-tag with 95% purity. Additionally, composite membranes made of 95% polysulfone and 5% sulfonated polyether ether ketone (SPEEK) were fabricated and used to filter a solution containing cyclic and linearized MC-LR. Tests were also performed to measure the adsorption and desorption of MC-LR …

Tuning Electrochemical Interactions And Polymer Electrolyte Interfaces For Enhanced Organic Acid Separations Using Electrodeionization, Matthew Leo Jordan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Chemical separations are critical processes for chemical and industrial plants to purify and isolate products however current separation technologies, such as distillation, rely on energy intensive processes. Electrochemical separation processes, such as electrodialysis and electrodeionization, are an energy efficient alternative that are emerging as an alternative for thermal-based separations. Organic acids are weakly ionizable species and susceptible for purification from process streams using electrochemical processes. Recently the fermentation route has garnered greater attention as a means for producing value-added chemicals, such as organic acids, from a renewable feedstock and aiding the circular economy. Some of the challenges electrodialysis faces for …

Small-Pore Zeolite Membranes: A Review Of Gas Separation Applications And Membrane Preparation, Zishu Cao, Ninad Anjikar, Shaowei Yang

Chemical & Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

There have been significant advancements in small-pore zeolite membranes in recent years. With pore size closely related to many energy- or environment-related gas molecules, small-pore zeolite membranes have demonstrated great potential for the separation of some interested gas pairs, such as CO2/CH4, CO2/N-2 and N-2/CH4. Small-pore zeolite membranes share some characteristics but also have distinctive differences depending on their framework, structure and zeolite chemistry. Through this mini review, the separation performance of different types of zeolite membranes with respect to interested gas pairs will be compared. We aim to give readers an idea of membrane separation status. A few representative …

Scale-Up Of Flow-Electrode Capacitive Deionization Method For Hard Water Softening, Noah Henry

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This study’s purpose is to further document a capacitive deionization design that could be capable of purifying H₂O at a household scale where clean water is otherwise unobtainable in applicable regions of the world. The hypothesis behind this study was continuously larger scaled electrochemical cell-units would increase their water softening capabilities in sustainable fashion. The trend at which performance will scale is currently unknown. The units studied were constructed using graphite plates, anion exchange membranes, cation exchange membranes, and Teflon channels. Three streams, two being CaCl₂ solutions in DI H₂O (one being concentrated with CaCl …

Amine-Functionalized Interpenetrating Polymer Networks For Co2 Capture, James Wills

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The research performed looked to advance the studies of vacuum swing absorption of Carbon Dioxide to help combat global climate change issues. The focus of the project was to create an anime-polymer sorbent that will weakly absorb and desorb CO2. The sorbent must be durable and be able to withstand multiple uses. The creation of a porous polymer matrix aided in the amines' ability to absorb CO2. Created samples underwent several qualitative and quantitative tests to determine their usefulness as an industrial sorbent. Infrared spectroscopy was used to study the effectiveness of the amine sorbents. Studying the changes in the …

Design And Control Of Intensified Membrane Reactor Systems Through Module-Based Design Approach, Brent Bishop

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

As interest in the modularization and intensification of chemical processes continues to grow, more research must be directed towards the modeling and analysis of intensified process units. Intensified process units such as membrane reactors pose unique challenges pertaining to design and operation that have not been fully addressed in the reported literature. This work aims to address the design and control challenges caused by the integration of phenomena and the loss of degrees of freedom (DOF) that occur in the intensification of modular membrane reactor units.

First, a novel first-principles approach for modeling membrane reactors is developed using the AVEVA …

Combinatorial Approaches For Effective Design, Synthesis, And Optimization Of Enzyme-Based Conjugates, Jordan Scott Chapman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The specificity and efficiency with which enzymes catalyze selective chemical reactions far exceeds the performance of traditional heterogeneous catalysts that are predominant in industrial applications such as conversion of commodity chemicals to value-added products, fuel cells, and petroleum refinement. Moreover, biocatalysts exhibit exceptionally high product turnover at ambient conditions with little health and environmental burden. These advantageous qualities have led to the prolific use of enzyme catalysis in pharmaceutical, detergents, and food preservation industries wherein their use has greatly reduced waste generation, Unfortunately, the full slate of benefits that enzymes can impart to a broader range of chemical processes is …

Water Recovery From Bioreactor Mixed Liquors Using Forward Osmosis With Polyelectrolyte Draw Solutions, Calen Raulerson

All Theses

The objective of this research was to test the feasibility of using forward osmosis (FO) with polyelectrolyte draw solutions to recover water from bioreactor mixed liquors. When combined with an Anaerobic Osmotic Membrane Bioreactor (AnOMBR), such a system could process fecal and food waste from astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and reclaim important nutrients and water. This project focused on measuring the obtainable water recovery rates from bioreactor effluent, and the identifying challenges associated with the operation.

AnOMBRs feature several advantages over aerobic bioreactors, and non-osmotic anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBR). Anaerobic bioreactors avoid the significant energy costs of …

Lipoprotein-Induced Increases In Cholesterol And 7-Ketocholesterol Result In Opposite Molecular-Scale Biophysical Effects On Membrane Structure, Manuela A.A. Ayee, Irena Levitan

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Under hypercholesterolemic conditions, exposure of cells to lipoproteins results in a subtle membrane increase in the levels of cholesterol and 7-ketocholesterol, as compared to normal conditions. The effect of these physiologically relevant concentration increases on multicomponent bilayer membranes was investigated using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. Significant changes in the structural and dynamic properties of the bilayer membranes resulted from these subtle increases in sterol levels, with both sterol species inducing decreases in the lateral area and inhibiting lateral diffusion to varying extents. Cholesterol and 7-ketocholesterol, however, exhibited opposite effects on lipid packing and orientation. The results from this study indicate …

Phase-Field Modeling Of The Polymer Membrane Formation Process For Micro- And Ultra-Filtration, Michael Rosario Cervellere

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Porous polymer membrane filters are widely used in separation and filtration process. Micro- and ultra-filtration membranes are commonly used in biopharmaceutical applications such as filtering viruses and separating proteins from a carrier solution. The formation of these membrane filters via phase inversion is a complex and interconnected process where varying casting conditions can have a wide variety of effects on the final membrane morphol- ogy. Tailoring membrane filters for specific performance characteristics is a tedious and time consuming process. The time and length scales of membrane formation make it extremely difficult to experimentally observe membrane formation. Modeling the membrane formation …

Investigation Of Membrane Based Processes For Biomedical Applications, Efecan Pakkaner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As substantial developments were achieved in nanotechnology and polymer engineering, especially in the last few decades, the use of membranes and membrane-based procedures was found to be expanding into more and more research and development areas; including biological engineering, life sciences and biomedical engineering. Not only have they been the main focus of meaningful research, but they have also been the main pieces of the solutions to very thorny problems encountered within a wide range of applications from microfluidics to water treatment, thanks to their versatility, cost-effectiveness and biocompatibility, when compared to conventional separation techniques. To celebrate and embrace these …

Garver Industrial Design Project: Designing A Full-Scale Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Facility For The City Of Lawton, Oklahoma, Kayliana Warden, Marlando Collins, Sandrina Depaz, Reid Eakin, Reed Leasure, Vera Rodriguez

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

A groundwater treatment facility was designed for Lawton, Oklahoma to address potential water scarcity due to drought conditions in southwest Oklahoma. The facility will produce five million gallons per day (MGD) of treated water. The plant will have the capacity of treating 4,085 gallons per minute of influent water at an 86% recovery. The water to be treated will come from the Arbuckle-Timbered Hills Aquifer. Studies have been conducted around the aquifer to identify the best well site locations.

A centralized treatment facility using reverse osmosis filtration as the main treatment technology has been designed. To prevent reverse osmosis membrane …

Surface Modified Polypropylene Membranes For Treating Hydraulic Fracturing Produced Waters By Membrane Distillation, Tharaka Hawpe Gamage

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Membrane distillation is an emerging technology for treating hydraulic fracturing flowback and produced waters. Suppression of membrane fouling by inorganic and polar and non-polar organic compounds is a challenge. Here polyhydroxyethyl methacrylate, polyacrylic acid, polvinylallyl imidazolium bromide and polyvinylhexyl imidazolium bromide chains have been grafted from the membrane surface. Fouling is initially due to adsorption of organic compounds followed by scale formation. When challenged with produced water, membranes modified with polvinylallyl imidazolium bromide chains provided the greatest resistance to fouling. For EC pretreated produced water and synthetic produced water that contained mainly inorganic species, the flux decline was much less.

High Temperature Polymer Electrolytes For Hydrogen Fuel Cells And Electrochemical Pumps, Gokul Venugopalan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Hydrogen fuel cell and separation technologies such as proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) and electrochemical hydrogen pump (ECHP) offer a profound advantage in the transition to a low-carbon economy. An imperative hitch in hydrogen fuel cells and ECHP technology has been the electrocatalyst poisoning by carbon monoxide (CO) and other contaminants in the reactant mixture. By operating, hydrogen fuel cells and ECHPs at high temperatures (>200 °C), the effect of CO adsorption on the electrocatalyst surface could be curtailed. The high-temperature operation of devices necessitates a proton exchange membrane (PEM) to operate under anhydrous conditions.

In this work, …

Abiotic Sensor For Electrochemical Determination Of Chlorpyrifos In Natural Water Based On The Inhibition Of Silver Nanoparticles Oxidation, Ziad Khalifa, Moustafa Zahran, Magdy Zahran, Magdi Abdelazzem

Chemical Engineering

Chlorpyrifos, organophosphorus pesticide, is a persistent organic pollutant that may cause serious health problems. Herein, a simple, green, and sensitive electrochemical inhibition sensor based on silver nanoparticles (AgNP)-modified glassy carbon (GC) electrode was developed for the determination of chlorpyrifos in natural water for the first time. The chemical reduction technique based on natural reducing and capping agents such as dissolved organic matter (DOM), natural latex (NL) and mucilage was employed for AgNP synthesis. DOM-AgNP, NL-AgNP, and Mucilage-AgNP were immobilized on GC by sticking technique under the same voltammetric and electrolytic conditions. The oxidation behavior of the three modified electrodes was …

Investigating The Performance Of Hydroponic Nutrient Solutions As Potential Draw Solutions For Fertilizer Drawn Forward Osmosis, Mohamed Bassiouny Abu Qersh

Theses and Dissertations

This research project aims at investigating the performance of hydroponic nutrient solutions as draw solutions for desalination using the fertilizer drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) process. Six different lettuce and leafy greens hydroponic nutrient stock solutions were prepared according to the literature and used in this study and tested on a bench-scale forward osmosis unit as draw solutions for the process. The feed solutions for the process was de-ionized water mixed with Sodium Chloride in different concentrations to represent different salinities of brackish groundwater. The draw efficiency of each solution was measured based on water flux, reverse solute flux, water recovery, …

Understanding Absorption, Supersaturation, And Drug Activity In Solution: Working Towards Developing A More Biorelevant Media, Freddy Arce

Theses and Dissertations--Pharmacy

With the looming dominance of poorly water-soluble chemical entities within the pharmaceutical pipeline, the pharmaceutical industry has leaned on the use of supersaturating drug delivery systems (SDDSs) to achieve efficacious concentrations within the gastrointestinal fluids. SDDSs aim to achieve concentrations in solutions greater than the solubility of the lowest energy crystalline form. However, the generation of supersaturated solutions of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) creates a strong crystallization potential, which is undesirable.

In product development, supersaturating products often fail in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials due to poor oral bioavailability and a lack of in vivo efficacy. Pre-clinical testing …