Technological watch

AbstractOne process involved in biorefinery for generation of value?added products is fermentation. After fermentation, the downstream bioproduct purification process is conventionally performed by organic solvent extraction, which is environmentally?hazardous and costly. Membrane?based separation is a cost?efficient and environmentally?benign method for bioproduct separation and purification. In this study, a thin film composite (TFC) nanofiltration (NF) membrane was prepared and the pore size and charge of the polyamide layer were controlled by introducing iminodiacetic acid (IDA), a charged monoamine monomer, with piperazine (PIP) during interfacial polymerization (IP). The newly?developed NF membrane was found to have a molecular weight cut?off (MWCO) of 500 to 1350?Da, allowing the permeation of the fermentation product, while rejecting other higher molecular weight compounds. IDA addition in the aqueous amine solution during IP effectively engineered the MWCO values and pore sizes of TFC NF membranes for specific applications, such as separation of fermentation bioproducts. This study successfully showed that IDA reduced the diffusivity of PIP during IP, which negatively affected the polyamide formation and membrane performance. The optimal PIP:IDA concentration ratio was determined by MWCO and effective pore diameter for effective bioproduct separation and purification, which could not be performed by the current commercially?available NF membranes.