A Dissertation Entitled Membrane Drying of Ionic Liquid by Xi Du Submitted to the Graduate Faculty As Partial Fulfillment Of
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A Dissertation entitled Membrane Drying of Ionic Liquid by Xi Du Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Engineering 1 Dr. G. Glenn Lipscomb, Committee Chair 1 Dr. Sasidhar Varanasi, Committee Member 1 Dr. Maria R. Coleman, Committee Member 1 Dr. Sridhar Viamajala, Committee Member 1 Dr. Yong Wah Kim, Committee Member 1 Dr. Patricia R. Komuniecki, Dean College of Graduate Studies The University of Toledo December 2012 Copyright 2012, Xi Du This document is copyrighted material. Under copyright law, no parts of this document may be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author. An Abstract of Membrane Drying of Ionic Liquid by Xi Du Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Engineering The University of Toledo December 2012 Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs or, simply, ILs) are liquid salts at temperatures near or slightly above room temperature. ILs consist entirely of bulky, asymmetric organic cations and a variety of anions and, as a consequence, ILs have non-measureable vapor pressure. Due to their unique physical properties, RTILs can be used and recycled as environmentally benign solvents without loss due to evaporation. Envisioned applications range from carbon dioxide capture to battery electrolyte replacement to cellulose dissolution and processing. Nanostructural organization of aqueous ILs and its change with water concentration are of interest in many recent studies. Water molecules can form hydrogen bond with anions in ILs. At low water concentrations water molecules form complexes mostly with anions rather than with other water molecules and begin to form clusters at high water concentrations. Diffusion is the macroscopic result of random thermal motion on a microscopic scale which is useful to understand the movement of a single molecule while viscosity is a collective transport property for the entire system. Viscosity can increase dramatically as iii water concentration decreases and is accompanied by large decreases in water diffusivity and equilibrium water vapor pressure. Additionally, solvation properties can change dramatically and necessitate careful control of water concentration. Experimental measurements of [C2mim][OAc] cation and anion self-diffusivity, water self-diffusivity, and water vapor pressure are investigated. The role of temperature and water concentration on the physical-chemical characteristics is studied. Pervaporation is a membrane separation process which has been developed for the recovery of dilute solutes from aqueous or organic bulk solvents. The removal of water from aqueous RTIL solutions using pervaporation is reported here. The driving force for separation is the difference in partial pressure of the components on the two sides of the membrane. Pervaporation may prove more versatile than solvent extraction techniques. Additionally, membrane processes may have dramatically lower energy requirements than distillation if one can identify an appropriate membrane and process for the separation problem. A number of membranes of varying composition and molecular weight cut-off are evaluated for pervaporation with a dry gas sweep. The dependence of overall water transport rates on temperature, liquid flow and gas flow is evaluated. The mass transfer resistance of each flow channel and the membrane are determined from the results. The effects of membrane properties and the temperature dependence of water vapor pressure on performance are reported. iv Dedicated to my family vi Acknowledgements I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Glenn Lipscomb, for giving me this great opportunity to work with him and carry through this research. His encouragement, patience, and guidance make this research and the completion of this dissertation possible. I would also like to appreciate my dissertation committee: Dr. Sasidhar Varanasi, Dr. Maria R. Coleman, Dr. Sridhar Viamajala and Dr. Yong Wah Kim for their advice and contribution to this research. I want to specially thank Rob Dunmyer and Tom Jacob, who helped me a lot to set up the experiment system and fix problem of the instruments. I got many suggestions and learnt a lot from them. I gratefully acknowledge SuGanit Systems Inc. and the University of Toledo for providing financial support to this research. I would also like to thank Pingjiao Hao, Rahul Patil, Sricharan Nanduri, Ashkan Iranshahi, and Yuecun Lou for helping me through my work. Finally, I thank all friends in the University of Toledo for giving me good memories during the years I am here. vii Table of Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements vii Contents viii List of Tables xii List of Figures xiii List of Symbols xviii viii 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Research Objective .................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Literature Review ...................................................................................................... 2 1.2.1 Room Temperature Ionic Liquids ...................................................................... 3 1.2.2 Challenges of ILs ................................................................................................ 7 1.2.3 Methods for ILs Recovery .................................................................................. 8 1.2.4 Membrane Separation ......................................................................................... 9 viii 1.2.5 Characteristics of Reverse Osmosis and Pervaporation ................................... 11 1.2.6 Mass Transport in Membranes ......................................................................... 14 1.2.7 Mass Transport in Pervaporation...................................................................... 16 1.2.8 Concentration Polarization ............................................................................... 20 1.3 Structure of Thesis .................................................................................................. 24 2 Vapor Pressure, Conductivity, Viscosity, and Diffusivity of Aqueous 1-ethyl-3- methylimidazoulium Acetate ([C2mim][OAc]) ............................................................... 26 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 26 2.2 Vapor Pressure of Aqueous [C2mim][OAc] ........................................................... 27 2.2.1 Experiment ....................................................................................................... 27 2.2.2. Results ............................................................................................................. 32 2.3 Conductivity of Aqueous [C2mim][OAc] ............................................................... 33 2.3.1 Experiment ....................................................................................................... 33 2.3.2. Results ............................................................................................................. 33 2.3 Viscosity of Aqueous [C2mim][OAc] .................................................................... 34 2.3.1 Experiment ....................................................................................................... 34 2.3.2. Results ............................................................................................................. 35 2.4 Diffusivity of Aqueous [C2mim][OAc] .................................................................. 36 ix 2.4.1 Experiment ....................................................................................................... 36 2.4.3 Results .............................................................................................................. 39 2.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 48 3 Membrane Drying of Aqueous 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazoulium Acetate ([C2mim][OAc]) ........................................................................................................................................... 50 3.1 Instruction ................................................................................................................ 50 3.2 Straight RO Membrane Separation ......................................................................... 51 3.2.1 Experiment ....................................................................................................... 51 3.2.2 Results and Discussion ..................................................................................... 53 3.3 Pervaporation separation ......................................................................................... 55 3.3.1 Introduction and Theory ................................................................................... 55 3.3.2 Experimental Setup .......................................................................................... 55 3.3.3 Results .............................................................................................................. 57 3.3.3.1 Membrane Types ....................................................................................... 57 3.3.3.2 Performance of Aqueous IL Pervaporation with RO AK Membrane........ 60 3.4 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................