Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159330
Title: Feasibility and performance of a thin-film composite seawater reverse osmosis membrane fabricated on a highly porous microstructured support
Authors: Lim, Yu Jie
Lee, Jaewoo
Bae, Tae-Hyun
Torres, Jaume
Wang, Rong
Keywords: Engineering::Civil engineering
Issue Date: 2020
Source: 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
Project: 1501-IRIS-04 
Journal: Journal of Membrane Science
Abstract: 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.
URI: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159330
ISSN: 0376-7388
DOI: 10.1016/j.memsci.2020.118407
Schools: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering 
Interdisciplinary Graduate School (IGS) 
School of Biological Sciences 
Research Centres: Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute 
Singapore Membrane Technology Centre 
Rights: © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Fulltext Permission: none
Fulltext Availability: No Fulltext
Appears in Collections:CEE Journal Articles
IGS Journal Articles
NEWRI Journal Articles
SBS Journal Articles

SCOPUSTM   
Citations 10

34
Updated on Mar 24, 2024

Web of ScienceTM
Citations 10

32
Updated on Oct 28, 2023

Page view(s)

146
Updated on Mar 27, 2024

Google ScholarTM

Check

Altmetric


Plumx

Items in DR-NTU are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.