Preparation and Characterization of Asymmetric Ultrafiltration Membrane for Lysozyme Separation: Effect of Polymer Concentration

Abstract

Penetrations of membrane technology in the downstream processing of protein production are now well accepted due its effectiveness and ability to generate high yield of product. This study aimed to investigate the effects of polymer concentrations on morphology and performance of ultrafiltration membranes for lysozyme separation. Three membrane solutions with different polymer concentration of Polyehtersulfone/N–Methyl pyrolidone/water with 15% w/w, 17% w/w and 19% w/w (15% [UF 15], 17% [UF 17] and 19% [UF 19]) were used to prepare asymmetric flat sheets membranes via a simple dry/wet phase inversion technique. The data obtained shows that the permeability coefficient decreased from 10.9 × 10^–6 to 0.44 × 10^–6m³/m².s.bar with increasing polymer concentrations. UF 15 membrane discovers the highest flux and lysozyme transmission, consequently promoted this membrane as an optimum membrane for lysozyme separation. This study proves that the polymer concentration was greatly affected the membrane performance and structural properties consecutively, promoted an improvement of UF membrane capability for lysozyme separation.