Membrane Based Bioseparation

Membrane based bioseparation
Introduction
• A membrane is a thin semi-permeable barrier
which can be used for the following types of
separation:
• Particle-liquid separation
• Particle-solute separation
• Solute-solvent separation
• Solute-solute separation
Introduction
• Some of the factors, which are utilized in
membrane based separation, are:
– Solute size
– Electrostatic charge
– Diffusivity
– Solute shape
Introduction
• The transport of material through a
membrane could be driven by convection or
by diffusion or by a combination of the two.
• Convection based transport takes place due to
transmembrane pressure and hence
membrane processes involving convective
transport are also referred to as pressure
driven processes.
Membrane types
• A membrane may be made from organic
polymers or inorganic material such as glass,
metals and ceramics, or even liquids.
• Examples of polymeric (or organic) membranes
include those made from cellulose, cellulose
acetate (CA), polysulfone (PS), polyethersulfone
(PES), polyamides (PA), polyvinylidine fluoride
(PVDF), polyacrylonitrile (PAN).
• Inorganic membranes can be made from
ceramics, glass, pyrolyzed carbon and stainless
steel.
Types of Membranes
• From a structural point of view
membranes are broadly divided into two
types
• Symmetric (or isotropic): A symmetric
membrane has similar structural
composition and morphology at all
positions within it.
• Asymmetric (or anisotropic): An

asymmetric membrane is composed of
two or more structural planes of non-
identical composition or morphology.
Types of Membranes
• From a morphological point
of view, membranes can be
classified into two
categories: porous or dense.
• Porous membranes have tiny
pores or pore networks .
• Dense membranes do not
have any pores and solute or
solvent transport through
these membranes take place
by a diffusion.
Membrane Types
• Membranes are available in three basic forms:
• Flat sheet membrane
• Tubular membrane
• Hollow fiber membrane
• The performance of a membrane depends to a large
extent on the properties of the membrane.
• Thus membrane characterization is important both for
membrane makers and membrane users.
• Some of the properties which need characterizing are:
– Mechanical strength e.g. tensile strength, bursting
pressure
– Chemical resistance e.g. pH range, solvent compatibility
– Permeability to different species e.g. pure water
permeability, sieving coefficient
– Average porosity and pore size distribution
Classification of membrane processes
Microfiltration (MF)
• Used for separation of fine particles from solutions.
• Microfiltration membranes are microporous and retain
particles by a purely sieving mechanism
• The transmembrane pressure ranges from 1 to 50 psig.
• Most microfiltration membranes capture particles by
surface filtration, i.e. on the surface of the membrane.
• In some cases depth filtration is also used.
• MF is most commonly used for clarification,
sterilization and slurry concentration.
• Most MF membranes are symmetric.
• Microfiltration process can be operated either in a
dead-end (normal flow) mode or cross-flow mode
• Normal flow (or dead end filtration) is used for air
filtration, virus removal and sterilization processes.
• For most other applications, crossflow
microfiltration is preferred.
Application of Microfiltration
• The various applications of microfiltration in
biotechnology include:
– Cell harvesting from bioreactors
– Virus removal for pharmaceutical products
– Clarification of fruit juice and beverages
– Water purification
– Air filtration
– Sterilization of products
Ultrafiltration (UF)
• Retain macromolecules such as proteins while allowing
smaller molecules to pass through.
• UF is used to
– Concentration of solutes
– Purification of solvents
– Fractionation of solutes
– Clarification
• Normal transmembrane pressure in ultrafiltration

ranges from 10 to 100 psig.
• Most UF membranes are asymmetric.
Ultrafiltration
• The major areas of application are listed
below:
– Purification of proteins and nucleic acids
– Concentration of macromolecules
– Desalting, i.e. removal or salts and other low
molecular weight compounds from solution of
macromolecules
– Virus removal from therapeutic products
Ultrafiltration
• Ultrafiltration separates solutes in the molecular
weight range of 5kDa to 500 kDa.
• UF membranes have pores ranging from 1 to 20 nm in
diameter.
• Most UF membranes are anisotropic, with a thin "skin
layer“, typically around 10 µm thick fused on top of a
microporous backing layer.
• The skin layer confers selectivity to the membrane
while the microporous backing layer provides
mechanical support.
• Ultrafiltration is usually operated in the cross-flow
mode
Nanofiltration (NF) membranes
• Allow salts and other small molecules to pass
through but retain larger molecules such as
peptides, hormones and sugars.
• The transmembrane pressure in NF ranges
from 40 to 200 psig.
• Most NF membranes are composite i.e.
asymmetric.
Reverse Osmosis
• Allow water to go through but retain all dissolved
species present in the feed.
• In osmosis water travels from the lower solute
concentration side to the higher solute concentration
side of the membrane.
• In RO the reverse takes place due to the application of
transmembrane pressure.
• The normal transmembrane pressure range in RO is
200 to 300 psig.
• Recently developed membranes allow flow of water at
as low as 125 psig transmembrane pressure.
Dialysis
• Dialysis is a diffusion driven separation process.
• It is mainly used for separating macromolecules from
smaller molecules.
• Solute separation occurs primarily because smaller solutes
partition into the membrane better than bigger solutes
because the degree to which the membrane restricts the
entry of solutes into it increases with solute size.
• Smaller solutes also diffuse more rapidly than larger ones.
• The net results is that a dialysis membrane stops
macromolecules from going through but allow smaller
molecules to diffuse through.
Applications of dialysis
• Removal of acid or alkali from products
• Removal of salts and low molecular weight
compounds from solutions of macromolecules
• Concentration of macromolecules
• Haemodialysis, i.e. purification of blood
Liquid membrane processes
• Liquid membrane processes involve the
transport of solutes across a thin layer of a
third liquid interposed between two miscible
liquids.
• There are two types of liquid membranes:
– Emulsion liquid membranes (ELM)
– Supported liquid membranes (SLM)
Emulsion liquid membranes (ELM)
• Emulsion liquid membranes are multiple emulsions of the
water/oil/water type or the oil/water/oil type.
• The membrane phase is that interposed between the continuous
(or external) phase and the encapsulated (or internal) phase.
• The solute mass transfer area can be dramatically increased using
this membrane configuration.
• After transfer of solute, the membrane phase (which contains the
internal phase) is separated from the external phase and then the
membrane raffinate emulsion is broken into its component
phases.
Emulsion liquid membranes (ELM)
Supported liquid membranes
(SLM)
• With supported liquid membranes, the liquid
membrane phase is held in place within a solid
microporous inert support by capillary Forces .
• Very high surface areas can also be obtained
using this membrane configuration.

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• Asymmetric (or anisotropic): An

• Normal transmembrane pressure in ultrafiltration

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