Separation Science and Technology, Vol.46, No.6, 950-958, 2011
A New Adsorption Based Correlation for Estimation of Membrane Bulk Porosity
In this work, a new simple correlation has been derived for the prediction of the bulk porosity decline during nanofiltration of a salty (ionic) solution using the PVD membrane. This model has been developed on the basis of the adsorption of the cations available in the feed onto the membrane. Therefore, three adsorption isotherms were tested and fitted to the equilibrium adsorption data, and the Freundlich isotherm was subsequently realized as the best choice. The porosity model included two adjustable parameters which can be determined theoretically and experimentally. Adsorption isotherms were combined for the determination of the first parameter and a novel method called oFlux testo was developed for the other parameter estimation. A reasonable agreement was observed between experimental-and model-predicted porosity. The model's ability of estimation indicates a little decrease at higher pressures due to approaching an unfavorable equilibrium adsorption condition and deviation from the isotherm's parameters from the actual equilibrium amounts to this situation.