Technical Service Report

Nanofiltration
The Newest Class of Membrane Filtration
Elke Peirtsegaele
MICRODYN-NADIR US, Inc. 93 South La Patera Lane, CA 93117

Nanofiltration (NF) is the newest of the four classes of pressure-driven membranes. Initially utilized in the
1970’s for water softening, it was originally developed to bridge the gap between reverse osmosis (RO)
and ultrafiltration (UF). Today, a variety of NF membranes are commercially available, and continue to be
developed, for a number of unique applications.

History of Nanofiltration
Microfiltration (MF) was developed in the early 1900s – the first of the membranes – and has become
increasingly essential in medicine, pharmaceutical production and microbiology. RO was the next class of
membranes to be invented in 1959 by Loeb and Sourirajan at the University of California, Los Angeles with
an initial purpose producing drinking water from brackish water and seawater. Not much later, UF was born
and fit nicely between the salt-rejecting RO and salt-passing, particle-retaining MF. RO and UF membranes
worked well for many applications, but there was an increasing need for a membrane with performance
characteristics between those of RO and UF membranes.

NF membranes were initially developed as “loose RO” and “RO/UF hybrid” membranes in order to bridge
the gap between RO which essentially rejects all salt ions and most uncharged organic solutes, and UF
which allows complete passage of ionic species, but retains uncharged solutes above as small as several
thousand Daltons. Applications including, but not limited to, water softening, disinfection byproduct
removal, desalting proteins and other food streams, removing sugar from protein or plant matter and
separating monosaccharaides from polysaccharides, required the development of a new membrane since
neither RO nor UF membranes could perform the necessary separations.

The earliest documented application of NF membranes was a water softening application in Florida in the
late 1970s and the first documented process NF membrane was commercialized for the purpose of
desalting a small food-grade dye in 1983. In 1984, FilmTec Corporation coined the term “nanofiltration”
based on the estimated size
of the pores in a NF
membrane, queuing the birth
of the fourth class of
pressure-driven membranes.
MF
NF is often referred to as
modified RO because it is
based on very similar UF
operating principles. Similar
to RO, NF is a pressure-
NF
driven membrane filtration
process that utilizes a
semipermeable membrane RO
and cross-flow filtration to
separate a feed stream into a
purified “permeate” stream
and a “concentrate” stream Figure 1. The filtration spectrum.
containing a high percentage
of the impurities found in the raw water. Unlike RO, NF requires lower operating pressures and has a
slightly more open structure allowing predominantly monovalent ions to pass through the membrane, while
largely rejecting divalent ions. This has been especially relevant in the application of water softening, where
NF membrane technology is used to reduce hardness and remove organics, color, bacteria, THM
precursors and other impurities from the raw water supply. Although RO is necessary for seawater
desalination and brackish water treatment containing very high levels of dissolved solids (TDS), many

Form No: TR-001 // Revision: B // Date: April 20, 2017

water supplies do not require the almost total salt removal provided by RO. NF membranes partially
demineralize water, removing between 10 to 90% of dissolved salts compared to 99.5% for RO.

Today, NF membranes are used for a variety of applications including industrial water softening, food &
dairy, beverage, pharmaceutical and many other processes. It’s evident that the fourth class of pressure-
driven membranes has distinguished its own niche within the water and process industries and continues
to grow its presence worldwide.

MICRODYN-NADIR’s NF Membranes
MICRODYN-NADIR’s proprietary membrane and element
technologies and ability to customize makes them the Specialty
Membrane Company. As a company, MICRODYN-NADIR
focuses on customers, markets and applications where often
times it is necessary to utilize customization capabilities to make
products that other companies do not offer. It has the ability to
use custom materials, sizes and geometries of feed spacers,
permeate carriers, permeate tubes, outer wraps and anti-
telescoping devices (ATDs) to meet the needs of a particular
application or match the specifications of other manufacturers’
products for direct replacement to a product that has been
discontinued.
Figure 2. MICRODYN-NADIR has the
MCIRODYN-NADIR offers a line of seven unique polyamide-, ability to build customized products
piperazine-, and cellulose acetate-based NF membrane using various materials, geometries,
chemistries that are available in flatsheet and a multitude of and sizes.
spiral-wound element designs. These seven NF membranes are
used in a wide variety of applications.

TRISEP® TS80
TS80 is a semi-aromatic polyamide NF membrane with nominal monovalent ion rejection of 80-90% and
>99% divalent ion rejection. It is a versatile nanofiltration membrane that offers high solute rejection of
both salts and uncharged organic solutes while operating at lower pressure than reverse osmosis
membranes. In many water purification applications, TS80 is considered a “softening” membrane, and
these elements operate at a pressure of about 100 psi. TS80 membrane is available in other element
designs for use in industrial process applications.

TRISEP® TS40
TS40 is a piperazine-based NF membrane with a molecular weight cut-off in the 200-300 Dalton range.
Its nominal solute rejection is 40-60% NaCl, depending on feed concentration, and greater than 99% for
MgSO4 and sucrose. TS40 is primarily used in food & dairy and other process applications.

TRISEP® TS50
TS50 is a piperazine-based NF membrane that is designed to reject organics with a molecular weight
cut off above 300 Daltons while passing monovalent ions. This NF membrane is often used in food &
dairy processes, desalting, purification and other separations.

TRISEP® XN45
XN45 is a piperazine NF membrane that has a high rejection of divalent ions while allowing the great
majority of monovalent ions to pass through the membrane. Its nominal solute rejection is 10-30% NaCl
and greater than 90% for MgSO4 and sucrose. With a molecular weight cut-off in the range of 300-500
Daltons, XN45 is ideal for demineralization of organic solutes and have the versatility to be used in
process streams as well as lower pressure water purification.

Form No: TR-001 // Revision: B // Date: April 20, 2017

 TRISEP® UA60
UA60 is a piperazine-based thin-film composite
membrane with a similar chemistry to XN45. It has
been considered both a “tight” UF membrane as well
as an “open” or “loose” NF membrane. UA60 has a
molecular weight cut-off in the 1,000 and 3,000 Dalton
range and has limited monovalent salt rejection. Its
MgSO4 rejection is nominally 80%. This product is
frequently used in process applications requiring a
tight UF membrane or open NF membrane.

TRISEP® SB90
SB90 is a cellulose acetate / triacetate blend NF
membrane that delivers an excellent combination of
solute rejection, fouling resistance and chlorine
tolerance. SB90 has a nominal solute rejection of 85%
NaCl and greater than 97% MgSO4 and can tolerate
continuous free chlorine at up to 1.0 ppm and
operates at about half the pressure (200 psi) of
cellulose acetate RO membranes. This high flow Figure 3. Microdyn-Nadir’s TurboClean®
cellulose acetate NF membrane is used primarily in elements for sanitary applications (i.e. food &
beverage applications where cleaning regimens dairy).
require frequent use of chlorine to maintain a sanitary
environment.

TRISEP® SBNF
SBNF is a cellulose acetate membrane with a nominal MWCO of 2,000 Daltons and can tolerate
continuous free chlorine at up to 1.0 ppm. SBNF was developed specifically for customers treating
surface waters in Northern Europe and is well-suited for removal of organics and color.

Conclusion
The world of membrane filtration continues to grow as additional applications and the need for new
membranes continue to rise. Nanofiltration itself, as the newest class of membrane filtration, continues to
grow and MICRODYN-NADIR is constantly working to develop the next membrane or product in order to
meet the needs of customers and their unique applications. The company welcomes customers with new
or advanced projects or ideas that may seem difficult or even impossible as it has the extensive knowledge
base of membrane, element and system design, application know-how and troubleshooting solutions to
determine or develop the best product for the particular application.

References
American Water Works Association. “Reverse Osmosis and Nanofiltration.” American Water Works
Association. 1999, 2007.

Beardsley, S. S., McClellan, S. A. “Membrane Softening: An Emerging Technology Helping Florida

Communities Meet the Increased Regulations for Quality Potable Water”. American Water Works
Association. 13-16 August, 1995.

Paulson, D. “Nanofiltration: The Up-And-Coming Membrane Process.” Water Online. 18 May 2015.

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Form No: TR-001 // Revision: B // Date: April 20, 2017

Form No: TR-001 // Revision: B // Date: April 20, 2017