A novel organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membrane fabricated by Poly(m-phenylene isophthalamide) (PMIA) under large-scale and continuous process

The organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membranes are an attractive candidate that enable carbon-neutral nature in both isolation and purification process. However, the application of current commercial available OSN membranes is severely hindered by their inferior permeability and selectivity. Here, using poly(m-phenylene isophthalamide) (PMIA) as support, a thin film composite (TFC) membrane with remarkably high permeability and ideal selectivity is fabricated in an industrial-scale manufacturing line and the relevant spiral-would module is successfully prepared. Optimization by the solvent activated, the TFC membrane with an extraordinary solvent permeation for acetone, methanol and acetonitrile are 63, 41 and 38 L m −2 h −1 ∙bar −1 , respectively. The nanofiltration performance of A-TFC membrane supports out-performs: at similar rejection (100%) the methanol and acetonitrile permeance increased dramatically at 10 and 5 times than current commercial OSN membranes, respectively. The spiral-would module is carried out in methanol and acetonitrile RB (1017 g mol −1 ) solution, which displays a high permeate fluxes and stable separation performances, methanol: 112 GPD, 98%; acetonitrile: 99 GPD, 99.3%. This work provided a large-scale facile process for high-performance PMIA based OSN membrane, and the fabrication of spiral-would module, which should be promising for manufacture of solvent-resistant TFC membrane in industrial scale-up. • A TFC OSN membrane was firstly fabricated by PMIA at a large-scalable and continuous process. • Prepared A-TFC membranes were found to have an extraordinary solvent permeation for acetone, methanol and acetonitrile. • Prepared A-TFC membranes presented the excellent permeability and high dye rejection. • The spiral-would module with stable permeate fluxes and good separation performances.