Forward‐osmosis‐aided concentration of fructose sugar through hydrophilized polyamide membrane: Molecular modeling and economic estimation

Abstract

In this study, a thin-film composite membrane based on hydrophilized polyamide was synthesized for the concentration of an aqueous fructose solution using a forward-osmosis (FO) technique. The membrane was prepared by the addition of excess mphenylenediamine along with a small quantity of dipolar aprotic dimethyl sulfoxide solvent in the aqueous reaction bath followed by excess trimesoyl chloride in an organic bath with a longer time provided for interfacial polymerization to minimize fructose losses. The effect of operating parameters such as draw NaCl concentration, cross-flow velocity, and temperature on FO performance was evaluated. Membrane characterization was performed using scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction to study the physicochemical properties. A coupled model based on molecular modeling and computational fluid dynamics was developed to study the diffusion behavior and concentration profiles of the two solutions within the process. A detailed economic estimation for the production of crystalline fructose sugar is presented. The study reveals the significant potential of FO as an economical process for concentration of sugar solutions using brine as the draw solution. V C 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J.Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 44649.

Development of a UV coupled indigenous hydrophilized polyamide membrane system for enhanced shelf life of mature coconut water

“…It was ensured that the prepared polymer dope was cleared and homogenous at room temperature (± 25°C), which was then degassed overnight before casting on non‐woven fabric (polyester) support to the desired thickness. The film with support was immersed in a nonsolvent bath (water), where an ultraporous membrane was formed by phase inversion (Madhumala et al, 2017). The indigenously synthesized ultraporous PES substrate was characterized for MWCO (50 kDa) using PEG (1.5% (w/w)) of various standard solutions ranging from 40,000 and 60,000 molecular weights, at an applied pressure of 2 kg/cm 2 .…”

“…The resultant membrane was kept in an oven maintained at 110°C for about 5 min to thermally crosslink the polyamide layer. As a result, a skinny layer of polyamide (PA) with an MWCO of 400 Da was obtained on the ultraporous PES substrate by interfacial polymerization method (Madhumala et al, 2017). The PA membrane was hydrophilized by dip coating in 1.0 wt.…”

“…Membrane technology is one of the effective separation processes that can be used to overcome these obstacles. Moreover, the process advantage includes low cost, energy‐intensive, easy to scale‐up, and eco‐friendly (Ching et al, 2015; Madhumala et al, 2017).…”

Forward Osmosis: A Critical Review

“…FO can be used in a broad range of applications such as wastewater treatment [32,[78][79][80], seawater desalination [81][82][83][84], dewatering and concentration in the food industry [85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93], and the removal of dissolved metals [94][95][96][97]. The geometry of the FO membrane should be chosen wisely in accordance with the intended application.…”

“…Wang et al [91] utilized FO as an alternative method for concentrating whey and achieved a relatively high water flux, a high rejection of whey (>99.97%) and a low reverse solute flux. Madhumala et al [92] looked into the feasibility of fructose concentration by using FO and found significant economic advantages when a NaCl draw solution was chosen, as this improved the production of sugar crystals by 16% to 20%. FO has also been proven useful in oil concentration by water recovery from emulsions, showing a high water flux and a rejection of 99.9% towards the emulsion [93].…”