Feasibility and performance of a thin-film composite seawater reverse osmosis membrane fabricated on a highly porous microstructured support
Although a highly porous support membrane has attracted increasing attention as an alternative to enhance the water permeability of a thin-film composite (TFC) membrane without compromising salt rejection, its feasibility has not ever been tested in seawater desalination. This study explored the ava...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2022
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159330 |
| _version_ | 1826120001560510464 |
|---|---|
| author | Lim, Yu Jie Lee, Jaewoo Bae, Tae-Hyun Torres, Jaume Wang, Rong |
| author2 | School of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Lim, Yu Jie Lee, Jaewoo Bae, Tae-Hyun Torres, Jaume Wang, Rong |
| author_sort | Lim, Yu Jie |
| collection | NTU |
| description | Although a highly porous support membrane has attracted increasing attention as an alternative to enhance the water permeability of a thin-film composite (TFC) membrane without compromising salt rejection, its feasibility has not ever been tested in seawater desalination. This study explored the availability and potential of a highly porous microstructured (HPμS) support membrane as a support for a seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) membrane. Our lab-made membranes, TFC-HPμS, exhibited a higher water permeability of 1.62 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 as compared with most of the state-of-the-art SWRO membranes recently reported in the literature, while achieving comparable NaCl rejection (99%) in SWRO test condition (55 bar, 35,000 mg L−1 of NaCl). This excellent performance is thought to stem from the HPμS support endowing a TFC membrane with comparable mechanical properties to that of existing support used for conventional SWRO membrane and shortened effective diffusion pathway of water molecules over the active layer. The robustness and enhanced mechanical strength of the TFC-HPμS membrane are attributed to its narrow and regularly arranged finger-like structure ensuring the even distribution of local stresses, thereby eliminating the presence of stress convergence points. The shortened effective diffusion pathway was estimated to be achieved mainly by less localized surface pores due to the HPμS support's highly porous surface with a larger number of even distributed surface pores. This study potentially opens up another workable pathway in the fabrication of SWRO membranes with enhanced performance without significant sacrifice of the selectivity. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T05:09:23Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/159330 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T05:09:23Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1593302022-06-14T07:26:21Z Feasibility and performance of a thin-film composite seawater reverse osmosis membrane fabricated on a highly porous microstructured support Lim, Yu Jie Lee, Jaewoo Bae, Tae-Hyun Torres, Jaume Wang, Rong School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Interdisciplinary Graduate School (IGS) School of Biological Sciences Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute Singapore Membrane Technology Centre Engineering::Civil engineering Reverse Osmosis Seawater Desalination Although a highly porous support membrane has attracted increasing attention as an alternative to enhance the water permeability of a thin-film composite (TFC) membrane without compromising salt rejection, its feasibility has not ever been tested in seawater desalination. This study explored the availability and potential of a highly porous microstructured (HPμS) support membrane as a support for a seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) membrane. Our lab-made membranes, TFC-HPμS, exhibited a higher water permeability of 1.62 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 as compared with most of the state-of-the-art SWRO membranes recently reported in the literature, while achieving comparable NaCl rejection (99%) in SWRO test condition (55 bar, 35,000 mg L−1 of NaCl). This excellent performance is thought to stem from the HPμS support endowing a TFC membrane with comparable mechanical properties to that of existing support used for conventional SWRO membrane and shortened effective diffusion pathway of water molecules over the active layer. The robustness and enhanced mechanical strength of the TFC-HPμS membrane are attributed to its narrow and regularly arranged finger-like structure ensuring the even distribution of local stresses, thereby eliminating the presence of stress convergence points. The shortened effective diffusion pathway was estimated to be achieved mainly by less localized surface pores due to the HPμS support's highly porous surface with a larger number of even distributed surface pores. This study potentially opens up another workable pathway in the fabrication of SWRO membranes with enhanced performance without significant sacrifice of the selectivity. National Research Foundation (NRF) This research grant was supported by the Singapore National Research Foundation under its Environment and Water Research Pro- gram and administered by PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency (grant number: 1501-IRIS-04). 2022-06-14T07:26:21Z 2022-06-14T07:26:21Z 2020 Journal Article Lim, Y. J., Lee, J., Bae, T., Torres, J. & Wang, R. (2020). Feasibility and performance of a thin-film composite seawater reverse osmosis membrane fabricated on a highly porous microstructured support. Journal of Membrane Science, 611, 118407-. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2020.118407 0376-7388 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159330 10.1016/j.memsci.2020.118407 2-s2.0-85087206905 611 118407 en 1501-IRIS-04 Journal of Membrane Science © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. |
| spellingShingle | Engineering::Civil engineering Reverse Osmosis Seawater Desalination Lim, Yu Jie Lee, Jaewoo Bae, Tae-Hyun Torres, Jaume Wang, Rong Feasibility and performance of a thin-film composite seawater reverse osmosis membrane fabricated on a highly porous microstructured support |
| title | Feasibility and performance of a thin-film composite seawater reverse osmosis membrane fabricated on a highly porous microstructured support |
| title_full | Feasibility and performance of a thin-film composite seawater reverse osmosis membrane fabricated on a highly porous microstructured support |
| title_fullStr | Feasibility and performance of a thin-film composite seawater reverse osmosis membrane fabricated on a highly porous microstructured support |
| title_full_unstemmed | Feasibility and performance of a thin-film composite seawater reverse osmosis membrane fabricated on a highly porous microstructured support |
| title_short | Feasibility and performance of a thin-film composite seawater reverse osmosis membrane fabricated on a highly porous microstructured support |
| title_sort | feasibility and performance of a thin film composite seawater reverse osmosis membrane fabricated on a highly porous microstructured support |
| topic | Engineering::Civil engineering Reverse Osmosis Seawater Desalination |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159330 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT limyujie feasibilityandperformanceofathinfilmcompositeseawaterreverseosmosismembranefabricatedonahighlyporousmicrostructuredsupport AT leejaewoo feasibilityandperformanceofathinfilmcompositeseawaterreverseosmosismembranefabricatedonahighlyporousmicrostructuredsupport AT baetaehyun feasibilityandperformanceofathinfilmcompositeseawaterreverseosmosismembranefabricatedonahighlyporousmicrostructuredsupport AT torresjaume feasibilityandperformanceofathinfilmcompositeseawaterreverseosmosismembranefabricatedonahighlyporousmicrostructuredsupport AT wangrong feasibilityandperformanceofathinfilmcompositeseawaterreverseosmosismembranefabricatedonahighlyporousmicrostructuredsupport |