LDPE/polystyrene cation exchange membranes were prepared through a monomer-sorption method and UV radiation polymerization. The reaction behaviors in the preparation were investigated. The membranes prepared were characterized in terms of physical and electrochemical properties. The membranes exhibited reasonable properties for an ion-exchange membrane with weight gain (Wr) of above 0.3, electrical resistance of below 1.0 Ω $\textrm{cm}^2$ and ion-exchange capacity of 1.8 meq/g-dry membrane. DSC studies and FE-SEM image revealed the formation of a homogeneous membrane. Both the current-voltage and the chronopotentiometric curves of the membranes indicated that LDPE/polystyrene membranes can be properly used at a high current density, and the surface homogeneity of cation-exchange sites in the membrane was comparable to that in a commercial membrane.

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Factors affecting filtration performance were investigated in a Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) coupled with a submerged microfiltration module. Special bioreactors for aerobic and anoxic phases, respectively, were specifically designed in order to differentiate tile effect of Dissolved oxygen (DO) from that of mixing intensity on membrane filterability. DO concentration as well as mixing intensity proved to have a major influence on the membrane performance regardless of the SBR phase. A higher DO concentration resulted in a slower rise in TMP, corresponding to less membrane fouling.

A mathematical model describing the performance of a three phase catalytic membrane reactor for the partial oxidation of propane has been developed. The theoretical study pointed out that the recovery of products in the gas phase is strongly related to the membrane hydrophobicity.

Separation of MEK(methylethylketone) was carried out experimentally by a flat membrane contactor using a variety of extracting organic compounds. A correlation equation of Sherwood number was determined in terms of Reynolds number and Schmidt number for the flat membrane contactor system. This correlation equation was applied to get theoretically the overall mass transfer coefficient of MEK: it was compared to the experimental one. It was found that they are in good agreement.

Methane steam reforming (MSR) was studied in a membrane reactor (MR) with a Pd-based and a porous alumina membranes. MRs showed methane conversion higher than that foresaw by the thermodynamic equilibrium for a traditional reactor (TR). Silica membranes prepared at KRICT were characterized with permeation tests on single gases ($N_2$, $H_2$ and $CH_4$). These silica membranes can be also used for high temperature applications such as $H_2$ separation $CO_2$ hydrogenation for methanol production is another reaction where $H_2O$ selective removal can be performed with these silica membranes.

Low cost composite metallic membranes for the hydrogen separation and production have been prepared by using thin Pd-Ag foils reinforced by metallic (stainless steel and nickel) structures. Especially, “supported membranes” have been obtained by a diffusion welding procedure in which Pd-Ag thin foils have been joined with perforated metals (nickel) and expanded metals (stainless steel): in these membranes the thin palladium foil assures both the high hydrogen permeability and the perm-selectivity while the metallic support provides the mechanical strength. A second studied method of producing "laminated membranes" consists of coating non-noble metal sheets with very thin palladium layers by diffusion welding and cold-rolling. Palladium thin coatings over these metals reduce the activation energy of the hydrogen adsorption process and make them permeable to the hydrogen. In this case, the dense non-noble metal has been used as a support structure of the thin Pd-Ag layers coated over its surfaces: a proper thickness of the metal assures the mechanical strength, the absence of defects (cracks, micro-holes) and the complete hydrogen selectivity of the membrane. membrane.

Polymer electrolyte membranes are developed for the applications to facilitated transport membranes, fuel cells and solar cells. The polymer electrolyte membranes containing silver salt show the remarkably high separation performance for olefin/paraffin mixture in the solid state; the propylene permeance is 45 GPU and the ideal selectivity of propylene/propane is 15,000. For fuel cell membranes, the effects of the presence and size of the proton transport channels on the proton conductivity and methanol permeability were investigated. The cell performance for dye-sensitized solar cells employing polymer electrolytes are measured under light illumination. The overall energy conversion efficiency reaches 5.44 % at 10 ㎽/$\textrm{cm}^2$, to our knowledge the highest value ever reported in the polymer electrolytes.

This research was aimed at developing new catalytic membrane reactors to be used for : i) partial oxidation of toluene (to benzaldehyde and benzoic acid) ii) oxidative dehydrogenation of propane iii) complete oxidation of propane and toluene. The reactor is particularly useful for the optimisation and the industrial development of heterogeneous catalytic processes, particularly for those processes where it is necessary to control the reactants stoichiometry in the reaction zone. This control limits consecutive reactions, thus obtaining high selectivity with industrially interesting conversions. This presentation will concentrate on the partial oxidation of toluene.

Mesoporous zeolite - heteropolyacid-polymer hybrid membrane was prepared by sol-gel processes to make a proton conducting membrane. The crystallinity of mesoporous zeolite in composite membrane was increased with contents of heteropolyacid. Proton conductivity obtained from impedance measurements increases with contents of heteropolyacid, about 10$^{-3}$ S/cm in ca. 1.5 Wt% heteropolyacid.

Plasma processes developed in our laboratory, of interest for biomaterials, barrier coatings for food packaging and corrosion protection, are briefly reviewed in this contribution. Particular attention is devoted to diagnostics aimed to rationalize plasma-surface interactions and to identify parameters and correlations to be utilized for process control.

Carbon-silica membranes were Prepared by Pyrolyzing polyimide/silica composite obtained from ill-situ polymerization of alkoxy silanes via sol-gel reaction. In this study, effects of silica content and silica network in polyimide matrix were focused on the gas permeation and separation properties of the final carbon-silica membrane. The membranes prepared were characterized with a field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), a solid state $^{29}$ Si nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy ($^{29}$ Si-NMR), an electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA), a thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and gas permeation tests.

Membranes made with perfluorinated polymers are of particular interest due to the unique features demonstrated by these materials. Both highly hydrophobic and hydrophilic membranes have been developed from appropriate perfluoropolymers, which were in turn obtained by copolymerization of TFE with special monomers available at the industrial scale. Highly hydrophobic membranes obtained from the glassy copolymers of TFE and 2,2,4 trifluoro-5 trifluoromethoxy-1,3 dioxole (Hyflo $n^{ }$ AD) show properties which make them particularly suited for use in the field of gas-liquid contactors and membrane distillation. Hydrophylic highly conductive proton exchange membranes obtained from the copolymer of TFE and a short-side-chain (SSC) perfluorosulfonylfluoridevinylether (Hyflo $n^{ }$ Ion) find interesting application in the field of fuel cells, especially in view of the current tendency to move to high temperature operation.n.

Molecular dynamics simulations have been performed on $\beta$-cyclodextrins octyl-derivative (b-CD) encapsulated into a polymer matrix of glassy poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK-WC) material to investigate the effects of the complexation of p-nitrophenilacetate and naringin molecules with the aim to study the recognition properties of b-CD.

Optical resolution of a-amino acid (tryptophan and tyrosine) optical isomers was achieved by a pressure driven membrane separation process, using self-supporting crosslinked membranes base on polysaccharide with different swelling indices that ranged from 100 to 70%. The membranes prepared by casting and drying the polymer solution containing 5wt% acetic acid on an acryl plate followed by crosslinking with glutaraldehyde were characterized using such analytical methods as FTIR and swelling index measurements. On the way of separating the optical isomers, several experimental factors such as the concentration of the feed solutions, operating pressure and temperature, and degree of crosslinking of the membranes have been studied. When the chitosan membranes with 70% of swelling index were used , almost complete optical resolution was obtained; 97.92% of enantiomeric excess (ee %) and 2.26 g/$m^2$ㆍh of flux. The operating pressure and the concentration of feed solutions were respectively 1.0 kgf/$\textrm{cm}^2$ and 0.49 mmol/L.

The paper discusses the use of stable emulsion, prepared by membrane emulsification technology, to improve the enantiocatalytic performance of immobilised lipase in multiphasic membrane reactors. The production of optical pure (S)-naproxen from racemic naproxen methyl ester has been used as model reaction system. The enzyme was immobilised in the sponge layer (shell side) of capillary polyamide membrane with 50 kDa cut-off, The O/W emulsion, containing the substrate in the organic dispersed phase, was fed to the enzyme membrane reactor from shell-to-lumen. The results evidenced that lipase maintained stable activity during all the operation time (more than 250 hours), showing an enantiomeric excess (96 $\pm$2%) comparable to the free enzyme (98 $\pm$ 1%) and much higher compared to similar lipase-loaded membrane reactors used in two-separate phase systems (90%). The study showed that immobilised enzymes can achieve high stability as well as high catalytic activity and enantioselectivity.

Volatile organic compounds (VOC) cause air pollution problem and deterioration of atmosphere of petrochemical and fine chemical plants. Hybrid process of membrane and cold-condensation were developed and it effectively removed and recycled the VOC. Operation parameters of the process were optimized to attain hish removal and recycle of VOC. Composite membranes for organic vapor separation were developed in this work by PDMS coating and plasma polymerization on polypropylene and polysulfone support membranes. PDMS and various silicone monomers were tested for several organic vapors such as benzene, toluene, TCE, and HCFC, which are produced in petrochemical and fine chemical industry and causes air pollution problems if are released to atmosphere. Composite membranes prepared in this work showed appreciable performance in terms of organic vapor removal and reuse. Performance variation of the membranes was correlated with their surface characteristics.

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Hydrocarbon-hydrocarbon separations are one of the most important processes in petroleum refining. Distillation process has been used for separating hydrocarbons, but this conventional process is very energy consuming. Pervaporation separation through polymeric membranes is an emerging process alternative to distillation because of energy savings, compact system installation, reduced capital investment, and other performance attributes. In hydrocarbon separations, polymeric membranes are easily swollen by hydrocarbons and can lose mechanical strength. Chemically robust membranes are needed for the separation of hydrocarbons. In this study, the blend membrane was applied to separate benzene and cyclohexane. This is a model system for aliphatic and aromatic separation. Cyclohexane is also physically very similar to benzene and as a result of the very closing boiling points (0.6$^{\circ}C$), benzene and cyclohexane form an azetrope. Thus the system provides a good model for azeotrope breaking by pervaporation. The semi-quantitative thermodynamic model predicts that the calculated selectivity increases with increasing Hydrin contents in the blend membranes. Pervaporation experiments utilizing various operating temperatures and feed concentrations with different blend membranes are compared with the result from semi-quantitative thermodynamic calculations.

PU block polymers are constituted by sequences of constitutional units CU which are : a diisocyanate T, a polyol or a polyamine V, an extensor E .Due to the CU different solubility parameters ,hard and soft micro domains are formed;they can aggregate into different phases. A linear PU can be described by two parameters R=T/N and $R_{E}$=(R-1)V/E.A stoichiometric model is proposed which gives the general formula of all the possible PU: X((TV)$_{k}$(TE)$_{n}$)$_{m}$X , where k and m can be calculated from the experimental molecular weights respectively of pre polymer and polymer and n= R-1.Physical properties depend on PU composition and on nature of CU. I.R. analysis is useful for discovering the hydrogen bonds location : DSC gives informations on the presence of the different phases .PALS analysis shows that nano cavities become tighter on increasing n. A series of particular Pus ,obtained from :TDI, a low molecular weight polyol, a cyclic extensor, at different R and RE was prepared and analysed. These PU are amorphous, monophasic and appear to be good candidates for membranes.nes.nes.

Thermoplastic polyurethane(PU)-based blend membranes were prepared by the solvent evaporation process. The gas sorption, diffusion, and permeation properties of PU-based blend membranes have been studied. The morphology of PU-based blend membranes was investigated by SEM. The result showed that phase separation occurred with increasing blend ratio. $CO_2$ permeation behaviors of blend membranes were affect by blend composition. Thermoplastic polyurethane(PU)-based membranes showed high $CO_2$ permeation and $CO_2$/$N_2$ selectivity of the blend membrane was improved with increasing the blend ratio.

In this work, the physicochemical properties for permeant molecules and polyion complex membrane prepared by complexation between SA and chitosan were determined by using molecular modeling methods, and the permeation behaviors of water and alcohol molecules through the PIC membrane have been investigated. In the case of penetrant molecule, the experimental results showed that the prepared membrane was excellent pervaporation performance result in most solution, and the selectivity and permeability of the membrane were dependent on the molecular size, the polarity and the hydrophilic surface of permeant organics. However, the separation behavior of methanol aqueous solution exhibited other permeation tendency with other feed solutions and contradictory result. That is, the membrane were preferentially permeable to methanol over water despite water molecule has stronger polarity and small molecular size than methanol molecule. In this study, the results were discussed from the viewpoint of chemical and physical properties between permeant molecules and membrane in the diffusion state.

The main purpose of this work is to investigate the performance of membranes for treatment of dyeing wastewater. The microfiltration (MF) membranes (titania-blended polysulfone & alumina) were prepared. The nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes were kindly supplied by the Sae-Han. In order to reuse the wastewater for dyeing, the effluents were treated by the high flux RO and the fouling resistant RO (FRM) membranes. Also, the NF membrane was used for water reuse in rinsing.

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A chiral stationary phase (CSP) was synthesized by the modification of the chitosan using N-nicotinoyl phenylalanine and 3, 5-dimethylphenylisocyanate . The CSP based on the chitosan was then characterized in terms of their chemical structure and physical properties. To test its performance as a CSP, the silica powder with 5 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ of diameter were coated with the CSP to pack a column for High Performance Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC). Using the packed column, several racemates were tried to separate under various separation conditions with different compositions of eluents.

This study investigated the effect of 2-methoxy ethanol (2-Me) non-solvent as additive included in casting solution. Macroporous polymer membranes were prepared by using polyethersufone (PES)/N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP)/2-Me casting solution and water coagulant. The phase separation co-process of the vapor-induced phase separation (VIPS) and liquid-induced phase separation (LIPS) were used by means of membrane preparation method. The pore size and pore size distribution were controlled with additive (non-solvent), and measured with Automated Perm Porometer. By increasing additive (non-solvent) in the casting solution, the membranes produced changed from finger structure to sponge structure. That is due to the different diffusion rates. At slow diffusion process, sponge-like structure was formed and at fast diffusion process, finger-like structure was formed. Also relative humidity, evaporation time, temperature of casting solution and coagulation bath etc. had effects on the pore size distribution and the porosity of the membrane.

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Silica/SUS composite membranes were prepared for CO removal from products of methanol steam reforming. A support was prepared by coating Ni powder of sub-micron and SiO$_2$ sols of particle size of 500nm and 150nm in turns on a porous stainless steel (SUS) substrate. Silica top layer was coated on the modified support using colloidal sol with nanoparticle. As a result of mixture gas permeation test of silica composite membrane using H$_2$(99%)/CO(1%), CO concentration of 10000 ppm was reduced to under 81 ppm, which is acceptable in PEMFC anode gas specification. Permeation mechanism through the membrane was mainly molecular sieving.

The removal of dissolved oxygen(DO) from water was studied using a poly(vinyliene fluoride)(PVDF) hollow fiber membrane contactor(HFMC) with the vacuum degassing process(VDP), Asymmetric porous PVDF hollow fiber membranes (HFM) for membrane contactor were prepared by a wet phase inversion method. In spinning of these PVDF hollow fibers, dimethy lacetamide (DMAc), LiCl and pure water were used as a solvent, a pore-forming additive and internal/external coagulant, respectively. The characteristics of the structure(pore size, porosity etc.) of the prepared PVDF HFMs as a function of concentration of pore-forming additive in polymer dope solution were studied. Also, the removal efficiency of DO from water according to flow rates of water, using PVDF HFMC with VDP, was studied. The performance of the asymmetric porous PVDF HFMC and a symmetric porous PP HFMC commercialized were compared. As a result, the asymmetric porous PVDF HFMC showed higher removal efficiency of DO than that of a symmetric porous PP HFMC.

The worldwide annual production of polyolefins amounted to 60 million tons in 2000. During the process, 1-2 wt% of the olefin monomers have been emitted and flared into the air, causing the huge energy consumption and severe carbon dioxide emission. Recently, membrane process has been proved to be the most competitive among other separation processes in terms of cost of equipments, energy consumption and safety in this application. The performance of membrane process highly depends on the membrane properties and thus, it is very important to develop good membrane materials and composite membranes. We prepared PMDS dense and composite membranes and studied basic permeation behaviors of a series of olefins(ethylene, propylene, 1 -butylene), nitrogen and hydrogen as model gases.

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