Membrane filtration fouling

Table 4 summarizes the efficiency of membrane filtration as preliminary treatment in the hybrid process to obtain regenerated water for industrial reuse. Working with the adequate cleaning cycle to avoid fouling and to keep a constant flux (10 1 min ) important reduction in suspended solids (90%) and turbidity (60%) of the wastewaters is achieved but there is no significant reduction of other chemical or physical parameters, e.g., conductivity, alkalinity or TDS, or inactivation of E. coli. 

Cross-flow filtration systems utilize high liquid axial velocities to generate shear at the liquid-membrane interface. Shear is necessary to maintain acceptable permeate fluxes, especially with concentrated catalyst slurries. The degree of catalyst deposition on the filter membrane or membrane fouling is a function of the shear stress at the surface and particle convection with the permeate flow.16 Membrane surface fouling also depends on many application-specific variables, such as particle size in the retentate, viscosity of the permeate, axial velocity, and the transmembrane pressure. All of these variables can influence the degree of deposition of particles within the filter membrane, and thus decrease the effective pore size of the membrane. 

Biological fouling was monitored using the customary indicators of RO performance, including flux (productivity), salt passage, and bundle pressure drops (AP). In addition, the total bacteria count (TBC) of the RO feed water and the reject brine stream were also obtained using the membrane filtration method (Ref. 6). The increase in TBC between the feed and reject portions of the system had been found in the preliminary stages of... 

Pitfalls of the different water treatment processes are the formation of extensive amounts of sludge, which has to be deposited off, as is the case with flocculation, the formation of fouling layers during membrane filtration, or DBP formation after disinfection of NOM-containing waters. 

Mass-transport limitations are common to all processes involving mass transfer at interfaces, and membranes are not an exception. This problem can be extremely important both for situations where the transport of solvent through the membrane is faster and preferential when compared with the transport of solute(s) - which happens with membrane filtration processes such as microfiltration and ultrafiltration - as well as with processes where the flux of solute(s) is preferential, as happens in organophilic pervaporation. In the first case, the concentration of solute builds up near the membrane interface, while in the second case a depletion of solute occurs. In both situations the performance of the system is affected negatively (1) solute accumulation leads, ultimately, to a loss of selectivity for solute rejection, promotes conditions for membrane fouling and local increase of osmotic pressure difference, which impacts on solvent flux (2) solute depletion at the membrane surface diminishes the driving force for solute transport, which impacts on solute flux and, ultimately, on the overall process selectivity towards the transport of that specific solute. 

Ognier, S., Wisniewski, C. and Grasmick, A. (2004) Membrane bioreactor fouling in sub-critical filtration conditions a local critical flux concept. Journal of Membrane Science, 229, 171-177. 

Recent research efforts brought about new and exciting developments in membrane technology, some with direct implications for the membrane filtration of beer. For example, Stopka et al. [21] reported flux enhancement in the microfiltration of a beer yeast suspension when using a ceramic membrane with a helically stamped surface. A relatively simple modification of the ceramic membrane surface resulted in modified hydrodynamic conditions and disturbance of the fouling layer. As compared with a regular, smooth ceramic membrane of the same nominal pore size, the stamped membrane leads to higher flux and lower power consumption per unit volume of permeate at the same velocity of the feed. 

Prevention or minimization of fouling and concentration polarization represents one of the main challenges that confronts membrane processing in general and membrane filtration of beer in particular. Various approaches have been developed to control membrane fouhng and increase the permeate flux in CMF, including membrane selection and modification, boundary layer control, use of turbulence inducers, or pretreatment of the feed. The two main strategies that are currently used in beer CMF are proper membrane selection and boundary layer control. 

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