Abstract
Novel biopolymer-based composite membranes have been prepared for the dehumidification of air. Biopolymers, such as silk fibroin, DNA-Na and chitosan, were used as the base membrane materials. To facilitate the moisture adsorption, a hygroscopic lithium chloride (LiCl) salt was incorporated into the biopolymers. The dehumidification efficiency of each material was evaluated in terms of the condensed-water recovery rate and water permeability. All of the biopolymer composite membranes showed a higher water recovery rate as compared to the triethylene glycol liquid membrane. The most efficient dehumidification performance was shown by the silk fibroin composite membrane with the moisture recovery rate of 11 g/h at 80%RH and mean water permeability of 1.84×10−11 kmol m m−2 s−1 kPa−1. This result was attributed to the high sorption of water into the silk fibroin (protein) and LiCl composite material.
