A hydrogel-coated membrane for highly efficient separation of microalgal bio-lipid

Abstract

A cross-linked hydrogel-coated membrane was fabricated to achieve simple but highly efficient separation of bio-lipids directly from an aqueous microalgal culture medium. The membrane is composed of a stainless steel membrane coated conformally with a cross-linked hydrogel, poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA), synthesized by a photo-initiated chemical vapor deposition (piCVD) process. The pHEMA-coated membrane has hydrophilicity and underwater-oleophobicity for efficient separation of a bio-lipid-in-hexane/water mixture by gravity. The conformal pHEMA film-coated membrane enables extremely high oil rejection performance with intrusion pressure of 6.1 kPa and water permeation flux of 6.5x10(3) L m(-2) h(-1), with excellent separation efficiency greater than 98.0%.