Membrane separation process
                     MEMBRANE 
SEPARATION 
PROCESS
PRESENTED BY: ER. RAHUL JARARIYA (CHEMICAL)
GRADUATED: MADHAV INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, 
GWALIOR 474005
:
OVERVIEW OF MEMBRANE 
SEPARATION PROCESS 
•  Separation is a part of downstream operation in Chemical, 
petrochemical, biochemical, food and several other allied 
industries.
• Mostly the separation process required to obtain hight- value 
products in the food and pharmaceutical industries.
• The separation process works on the matter to be separated 
size, shape, vapour pressure, solubility and so on. 
WHAT IS A MEMBRANE? 
• Membrane means Skin. 
• A membrane is defined as a structure having lateral dimensions much 
greater than its thickness.
• A membrane defined by what it does (function), not by what it is.
• A membrane can be homogeneous or heterogenous, symmetric or 
asymmetric in structure.
• The membrane thickness may be from as small as 100 micron to several 
millimetres.
Classification of Membrane 
Processes
1. Pressure driven membrane 
process:
• a. Reverse Osmosiis (RO).      d. 
Miicrofilltratiion(MF).
• b. Nanofilltratiion (NF).          e. Pervaporatiion 
(PV)
•2c..  CUllotranficllterantiiotnr a(UtFio). n      g   r  a f.d Mieemnbtr adnrei gvaes n 
  s e  pmaraetiimon.brane process:
• a. Dialysis.
• b. Membrane extraction. 
3. Electrical potential driven 
membrane process:
 a. Electrodialysis (ED)
CHARACTERISTICS OF MEMBRANE 
SEPARATION PROCESSES:
• Separation goal. 
• Nature of species retained (size of the species).
• Nature of the species transported through membrane, electrolytic or volatile.
• Minor or major species of feed solution transported through membrane.
• Driving force.
• Mechanism for transport/selectivity.
• Phase of feed and permeate streams.


MEMBRANE SEPARATION PROCESSES:
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
• Clean Technology with operational ease. • Membrane fouling: (Especially 
• Replace the conventional processes. for hollow fibre modules).
• Recovery of high value products.
• Upper solid limits in RO.
• Greater flexibility in designing systems.
• Hybrid process development. • Expensive: (Fabrication 
• Applicable energy savings. method).
APPLICATIONS OF MEMBRANE 
SEPARATION PROCESSES:
Chemical Pharmaceut Food and Biotechnolo
Industry ical Dairy gy Industry
Industry Industry
CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
• Production of process water for Industrial 
use.
• Waste water treatment.
• Desalination of food, acid and reactive 
dyes.
• Concentration of all types of dyes.
PHARMACEUTICAL 
INDUSTRY
• Concentration and purification of soluble 
macromolecules such as plasma proteins, 
vaccines, enzymes and yeasts.
• Process water as per USP standards.
• Endotoxin free water.
FOOD AND DAIRY 
INDUSTRY
• Lactose and protein concentration.
• Concentration of whole and skin milk.
• Lactose protein separation.
• Gelatin Concentration. 
• Papine enzyme concentration.
• Fractionation and concentration of egg 
albumin and animal and fish oils and 
proteins.
• Concentration of extracts of vanilla, lemon 
peel, malt, etc.
BIOTECHNOLOGY 
INDUSTRY
• Enzyme concentration.
• Fermentation broth clarification.
• Separation of micro solutes like antibiotics 
and vitamins.
• Purification and concentration of vitamins.
• Tissue culture reactor systems.
• Bioremediation: The most significant 
emerging application of members in 
bioremediation involve the use of 
members to selectively separate 
hydrophobic organic pollutants from 
contaminated.
TYPES OF SYNTHETIC MEMBRANES:
Synthetiic  
Membrane
Miicroporo Asymmetriic  Thiin  fifillm  Ellectriicalllly  IInorgan
us (Skiinned) Composiite Charged iic
IIsotropii Aniisotro
c piic
MICROPOROUS MEMBRANE
• A microporous membrane is very similar in structure and function to a 
conventional filter.
• It has rigid, highly voided structure with randomly distributed. 
• Pore size is small 0.01 to 10 µm in diameter. 
• Isotropic and Anisotropic two different classified membranes.
• The pores are of uniform throughout the membrane is called Isotropic.
• The pores change in size from one surface of the membrane to the other is 
called Anisotropic. 
ASYMMETRIC MEMBRANE
• Asymmetric also know as Skinned membrane.
• Size is 0.1 to 1.0 micron skin on the surface of the membrane. 
• The skin may consist of voids which serve to support the skin layer.
• Porous sub layer acts as a support for the thin, fragile skin and has 
little effect on the separation characteristics.
• Two types of asymmetric are: Integrally and Non-Integrally skinned.
• The skin layers resulting from phase inversion process, which are 
porous is called Integrally.
• The skin layers are deposited from solution and are homogenous in 
nature is called Non-Integrally.
THE FILM COMPOSITE
• Primarily developed for RO and NF applications composites 
have a thin polymer skin formed over a microporous support 
film.
• The membrane brought about a sustainable improvement of 
RO technology since they were superior to cellulose acetate 
(CA) membrane. 
• They have a greater biofouling tendency than CA membrane.
ELECTRICALLY CHARGED
• These are necessarily ion charged membranes consisting of highly 
swollen gels carrying fixed positive or negative charges. These are 
mainly used in the Electrodialysis. 
• It can be dense or microporous.
• A membrane with fixed positively charged ions is referred to as an 
anion exchange membrane.
• A membrane containing fixed negatively charged ions is called a 
cation exchange membrane.

INORGANIC MEMBRANES
• Inorganic membrane are also known as ceramic membrane.
• Inorganic membranes are versatile and can be operated at elevated 
temperatures ranging form 500-800 ºC and ceramic membrane usable over at 
1000 ºC.
• Inorganic membranes compete with organic membranes for commercial use. 
• Ceramic membranes normally have an asymmetrical structure composed of at 
least two, but mostly three, different porosity levels.  
• Inorganic membranes manufactured because of particle dispersion and slip 
casting, phase separation and leaching, anodic oxidation, thin film deposition. 
MEMBRANE MODULUS
• Plate and frame.
• Tubular. 
• Spiral wound. 
• Hollow fibre.
FLOW PATTERNS IN MEMBRANE 
SEPARATION
MEMBRANE MATERIALS
Rubbery 
Polymer
Glassy 
polymer
Ion exchange 
polymer
METHODS OF MEMBRANE 
MANUFACTURE
Phase 
Inversion Melt Film 
Process. Pressing. Stretching.
Interfacial 
Polymerizati Track-etch Sol-gel 
on. Method. Peptization.
Preparation 
Template of Ion-
Leaching. exchange 
Membranes.
MEASUREMENTS AND 
INTERPOLATION OF SURFACE 
PROPERTIES:
Surface 
Energy
Solute- Surface Streami
membra
ne Properti ng potentia
affinity es l
Surface 
Texture
MEMBRANE CLEANING
HYDRAULIC PNEUMATIC ULTRASONIC 
CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING
• Used in membrane bio Reactors. • The membrane consist of air • Low ultrasonic irradiation (up to 
sparging, air lifting, air 40kHz) is an effective strategy for • The backwash leads to the lift-off of 
fouled membranes. 
deposited particles from the scoring, and air bubbling.
membrane surface and reduces the • Several factors are ultrasonic 
degree of concentration polarization. • The process has advantage of frequency, power intensity, feed 
low maintenance cost, ease of 
• quality, membrane materials, cross Back pulsing is a more backwash 
method with a forward filtration step integration with the existing flow velocity, temperature, and 
and followed by a reversed filtration system, and elimination of transmembrane pressure govern 
step. cleaning chemicals. the effectiveness of ultrasonic 
cleaning. 
THANK YOU