Transport of particles through RO membrane in steady state condition

Abstract

Reverse Osmosis(RO) membranes are widespread nowadays for separating the solvent from a solution. RO membranes are made of polymer matrix. Experiments show changes in relative interaction of solvent and solute with RO membrane matrix lead to changes in solvent permeation, solute rejection and fouling. Here we study microscopically separation of binary mixture through RO polymeric membrane using Molecular dynamics simulation to rationalize the experimental observations in terms a simple model. We find better solvent permeation and solute rejection with increasing interaction between solute and membrane with increase in fouling of solute inside membrane. We also find that stronger solvent membrane interaction reduces fouling. However, this leads to poorer performance of RO in terms of solvent permeation and solute rejection.