抄録
Osmotic distillation is a newly developed membrane separation process that can concentrate aqueous solution without elevating the system temperature or pressure; hence, it is suitable for separation of biological products. To perform osmotic distillation, porous hydrophobic membranes are needed. In the present work, poly(4-methyl-1-pentene) (TPX) was used to prepare porous hydrophobic membranes, and the application of the prepared membranes to osmotic distillation was also investigated. With TPX/cyclohexane as the casting solution, by using suitable coagulant, such as propanol, particulate TPX membranes with inter-connected pores can be successfully fabricated. By adjusting the coagulation environment, the pore size of the porous TPX membrane can be tailored. Experiments of osmotic distillation, to concentrate BSA, raffinose, and aspartame, were performed to evaluate the performance of the prepared membranes. The results indicate that the performance of the TPX membranes prepared in the present work is comparable to the commercial PTFE membranes. In addition, ultrafiltration and nanofiltration were also carried out to compare with osmotic distillation to evaluate the advantages of osmotic distillation.
