Electronic Theses and Dissertation

Crude palm oil (CPO) is produced from the palm fruit's pulp by pressing. One of the components that have an essential role in CPO is carotenoids. This research was conducted to synthesize the polyethersulfone (PES) membrane and determine the appropriate PES membrane characteristics in concentrating betacarotene of palm oil. Three kinds of PES membranes were prepared by phase inversion method, namely PES I with the composition of PES polymer 22% and N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) 78 (w/w), PES II with the composition of PES 22%, NMP 75%, and Polyethylene glycol (PEG) 3% (w/w), and The PES III with the composition of PES 22%, NMP 73%, PEG 3%, and 2-Methacryloyloxy ethyl dimethyl 3-sulfopropyl ammonium hydroxide (MEDSAH) 2% (w/w). The PES membrane performance on beta carotene concentration was conducted by filtration of the transesterified CPO's methyl ester. It was studied at various pressure differences of 3 bar, 4 bar, and 5 bar. The PES III membrane was selected for methyl ester filtration because it has the highest pure water permeability and has the highest pressure resistance up to 8 bar. The results showed that adding additives into the PES III membrane composition brought about the improvement of the PES membrane characteristics such as the equilibrium water content of 67%, density 1.55 g/ml, porosity 91.65%, the permeability coefficient of 4.15 L/m2.h.bar. The increasing operating pressure had no significant effect on beta carotene levels in the methyl ester (P

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