Sharif Digital Repository

Ultrafiltration (UF) membranes were prepared from blends of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) via phase inversion method induced by immersion precipitation. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) was used as pore former and hydrophilic polymeric additive. N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) and water were used as solvent and coagulant (non-solvent), respectively. The effect of different concentrations of PVP on the morphology and performance of the prepared membranes was investigated. Performance of the membranes was evaluated based on pure water flux and filtration of buffered bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution. The contact angle measurements indicated that the hydrophilicity of... 

In this study, aiming at hexavalent chromium removal from aqueous solutions, different strategies were proposed for developing hydrophilic and surface functional polysulfone (PSf) membrane. In addition to PSf membrane, three different types of membranes were prepared by addition of SiO2 nano-particles to the dope solution and/or by deposition of polydopamine (PDA) layer on the surface of the membranes. The membranes (i.e. PSf, PSf/PDA, PSf/SiO2 and PSf/SiO2/PDA) were characterized by different techniques. The membranes' transport properties and the separation performance were studied using a filtration unit operated at a continuous dead-end flow mode. The kinetics and the separation... 

In the present experimental study, the effect of operating parameters such as inlet and outlet pressure as well as inlet temperature on the mass separation capability of vortex tubes (VTs) for a gas mixture is investigated. Specifically, concentrating heavier components of a gas mixture in the hot outlet stream is considered. Proposing a semi-empirical index from the experimental study, the simulation of different arrangements of VTs, and the effect of recycling a portion of the hot outlet stream on its mass separation performance are investigated. Moreover, the proposed separation method by VTs is economically compared with commonly used methods by distillation columns and two-phase... 

Mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs) are promising candidates for carbon dioxide separation. However, their application is limited due to improper dispersion of fillers within the polymer matrix, poor interaction of fillers with polymer chains, and formation of defects and micro-voids at the interface of both phases, which all result in the decline of the gas separation performance of MMMs. In this work, we present a new method to overcome these challenges. To this end, a series of MMMs based on polyethersulfone (PES) as the continuous polymer matrix and MIL-53-derived MOFs as the dispersed filler were prepared. FTIR-ATR, XRD, TGA, FESEM, and N2 adsorption/desorption analyses were employed to... 

Supersonic gas separator is proposed for methane purification. One-dimensional analysis is performed to examine the design aspects associated with the converging-diverging nozzle and the liquid separation chamber. The results indicate that at low swirl intensities, the separation chamber length is about 100 times of the nozzle throat. Increasing the swirl intensity would lower this length sharply and it will be less than 10 for swirl intensity of unity which is equivalent to a swirl angle of 45°. In addition, a sensitivity analysis of the separator performance to the inlet conditions like the temperature, pressure, and composition of the mixture is carried out. It is observed that increasing... 

A brass vortextube is used to carry out a series of experiments. The main objective of the present research is to investigate the separation performances of a vortex tube (VT) for a hydrocarbon mixture. Examination is also applied to study the effects of nozzle intakes number and cold fraction on the gas species separation at specific inlet pressure 236.37 kPa in a VT with two gas mixtures (LPG as a hydrocarbon mixture and LPG-N2). A two-dimensional computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model simulation of a VT is presented. CFD code after validation is also applied to investigate the role of cold fraction and nozzle intakes number on the gas species separation. The highly rotating flow field... 

Zeolite SAPO-34 was used for fabrication of mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) to improve the CO2/CH4/N2 gas separation performance of the neat Pebax1074 membrane. Permeability and selectivity of the MMMs were studied at different temperatures of 25-65°C and pressures of 4-24 bars. Also sorption of different gases in MMMs was measured at 35°C and different pressures, which showed enhanced solubility coefficients. Moreover, thermal, morphological and mechanical properties of MMMs were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and tensile analysis. The results showed excellent improvement in... 

In this research, a triethylene glycol (TEG)/nano-zeolite Na-Y liquid membrane was developed in order to investigate the effect of zeolite nanoparticles on separation performance of a liquid membrane. To do this, a high yield nano-zeolite Na-Y was synthesized using mid-synthesis addition method. The synthesized samples were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, and SEM (EDX) instrumental techniques. A supported liquid membrane was prepared by impregnating a porous hydrophilic PVDF support with TEG and nano-zeolite Na-Y. The permeation tests of single gas components of O2, N2 and CO2 were carried out at pressure differences of 0.8 and 1.8 bar. The permeances of the single gases were found to be: CO2 >... 

The purpose of this study is to investigate separation performance of poly(ether-b-amide6) (Pebax1657)/glycerol triacetate (GTA) gel membranes for CO2 removal from H2, N2 and CH4. GTA as a low molecular weight and highly CO2-phill compound was added to membrane structure at various weight fractions, 20%, 40%, 60% and 80% of Pebax, to fabricate a new high solubility selective membrane with improved performance. Permeation of pure gases was studied at different temperatures from 25 to 65°C and pressures from 4 to 24bar and ideal selectivities were calculated. Results indicated enhancement in permeation for all tested gases. For example, at a pressure of 4bar and a temperature of 25°C, membrane... 

Polymeric membrane technology has received extensive attention in the field of gas separation, recently. However, the tradeoff between permeability and selectivity is one of the biggest problems faced by pure polymer membranes, which greatly limits their further application in the chemical and petrochemical industries. To enhance gas separation performances, recent works have focused on improving polymeric membranes selectivity and permeability by fabricating mixed matrix membranes (MMMs). Inorganic zeolite materials distributed in the organic polymer matrix enhance the separation performance of the membranes well beyond the intrinsic properties of the polymer matrix. This concept combines... 

Hyperbranched polyethyleneimine functionalized silica (PEI-SiO2) nanoparticles with considerable hydrophilicity were synthesized and incorporated into a polysulfone (PSF)/dimethylacetamide (DMA)/polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) membrane casting solution in five different ratios to fabricate PEI-SiO2/PSF nanocomposite membranes using nonsolvent-induced phase separation. The hydrophilic PEI-SiO2 nanoparticles were characterized by TEM, FTIR, TGA, and XPS analyses. Morphology, water contact angles, mean pore sizes, overall porosity, tensile strengths, water flux, antifouling and the dye separation performances of the PEI-SiO2/PSF membranes were also studied. The PEI-SiO2 nanoparticles were uniformly...