Development of Cellulose Acetate – PVP blend membrane and UV irradiation treatment to increase membrane selectivity for clove oil purification

Abstract

Clove oil obtained from clove leaves and stems has low oil quality. This is caused by the low levels of eugenol which is around 60-80%. The application of membrane technology to purify clove oil is constrained by the almost similar size of the eugenol and caryophyllene molecules. The aim of this study is to improve membrane selectivity by increasing the hydrophilic properties of the membrane. The eugenol will penetrate easily through hydrophilic membrane than caryophyllene. Cellulose acetate membrane was fabricated by dissolving 17 wt-% CA polymer in acetone and then casted via dry-wet phase inversion method. Poly vinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) is added to the dope solution to improve the hydrophilic properties of the membrane. The results of contact angle analysis showed that the addition of PVP by 1% was able to reduce the contact angle from 41° to 32° which means the hydrophilic increased significantly. The combination of PVP addition with nano ZnO incorporation can increase eugenol concentration from 75% to 88% but decrease the permeate flux from 6.78 to 5.33 L.m−2h−1bar−1.