Performance of thin film composite in the purification of crude glycerol

The use of membranes have been found to solve the issue of high operating cost in crude glycerol purification process due to its operation at ambient temperature and do not incorporate any chemicals. The use of a hybrid membrane in crude glycerol purification would benefit from its higher mechanical and thermal stability with enhancement in hydrophilicity for permeation of water soluble material. This paper reported on the use of thin film composites (TFCs) with a hybrid membrane as the barrier layer for the purification of crude glycerol. The TFCs were characterized by Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR), Thermal Gravitational Analysis (TGA), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and water contact angle. The effects of incorporating glycerol in the hybrid membrane formulation had been investigated through flux rate measurement, percentage glycerol permeated and NaCl rejection from the purification of crude glycerol. The aim of the purification process is higher NaCI rejection and higher recovery of glycerol with sufficient volume of flux. Results showed that the incorporation of glycerol in the hybrid membrane formulation had resulted in the increase of porosity and thermal stability of the barrier layer, which had subsequently increased the glycerol recovery with comparable values of flux rate and NaCI rejection as compared to that without glycerol.