Sup dudes.
So the windowed cell has some design problems and won’t allow the water to flow freely and smoothly through the cell. There was a lot of back pressure, which made flow consistency impossible and caused some leaks. We decided to proceed with the original cell, and have continued to try and make sure our results from the first 2X concentrated run are reproducible. So we started our new procedure yesterday, and all was going well with a stable flux and everything. About 15 minutes after we had added the salt solution to the feed, however, the computer decided to do a mandatory
update (pictured below). Haha… So we paused the experiment and let it update, but once we turned the pumps back on, the flux refused to stabilize. We messed with the flow rate a bit, let it run for a few more hours, but the data is all wonky. On the plus side, we were able to get a pretty good estimate of the amount of water in the feed tubing (about 250mL)! So, the initial concentration of that run was actually about 1.3X anyways. I’m accounting for this extra DI in the tubing for this next run, which is in the works as I type this and looks absolutely beautiful so far. I’ve become really comfortable with the system at this point and it’s become pretty routine. I feel like the system and I, we have a special bond. We understand each other. He’s finicky, but if you give him special care and patience, he performs beautifully. Usually. Sometimes. Yeah. Hahaha.
Jorge visited us on Monday and Tuesday and we got to catch up and show him our labs and projects, which was fun. Ana and Dr. Perreault will be back Monday. I can’t wait to show them that this new procedure works (if all continues to go well.. fingers crossed!) and hopefully get to start analyzing some membrane scaling soon! WOO!
Till next time,
Sky