Synthesis of Chitosan-Silica Combination Aerogel Membrane for Biodiesel Emulsion Purification

Abstract

Chitosan has now been widely developed as a membrane due to has good selectivity, hydrophilic properties, biodegradable, non-toxic and easily forms membranes or films. The combination of chitosan and silica can produce hydrophobic aerogel membranes for biodiesel purification with impact to provide environmentally friendly and durable membranes. The hydrophobic aerogel membrane experiment was made by using Toyobo cotton cloth as support and using silica sol with chitosan solution by concentrations of 1% − 3% (interval number 0.5%). The purification method was designed by pure biodiesel, and 77.5% w/w biodiesel-water feed was filtered into five membranes to determine the flux and membrane selectivity to water. After determining the best membrane with the highest rejection rate, the membrane was tested for glycerol selectivity with variations in the addition of glycerol 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25% in biodiesel. For the results of the membrane flux test, it was found for the addition of chitosan concentrations of 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 2.5%, 3%, respectively, were 0.19837; 0.15758; 0.08559; 0.03999; and 0.02211 mL/cm 2 .s. For the results of membrane selectivity to water, it was found that the membranes with 1% and 1.5% chitosan concentrations had the highest water rejection levels and the highest membrane fluxes. The characterization of FTIR and contact angle measurement to determine the material's surface characteristics and the interaction between surfaces for the membrane of 1,5% show that the resulting membrane is non-polar.