Microfiltration/ultrafiltration

Electrodialysis Microfiltration Ultrafiltration Nanofiltration Reverse Osmosis... 

The most common membrane systems are driven by pressure. The essence of a pressure-driven membrane process is to selectively permeate one or more species through the membrane. The stream retained at the high pressure side is called the retentate while that transported to the low pressure side is denoted by the permeate (Fig. 11.1). Pressure-driven membrane systems include microfiltration, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, pervaporation and gas/vapor permeation. Table ll.l summarizes the main features and applications of these systems. 

Other membrane processes such as microfiltration, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and colloid-enhanced ultrafiltration have been applied to the separation of beta-cypermethrin from wastewater samples [27]. In this study, a separation of above 92% was performed by reverse osmosis by the use of composite membranes and above 80% by colloid-enhanced ultrafiltration by the use of nonionic surfactants. 

See also Gas chromatography Capillary gel electrophoresis (CGE), in microfluidic assays, 26 971 Capillary hydrodynamic flow (CHDF) techniques, 16 291 20 381 Capillary microfiltration/ultrafiltration (MF/UF) technology, 26 83-84 Capillary number, 11 746 Capillary optics, 26 438 Capillary pumped loops (CPLs),... 

Pressure loss coefficient, 13 261 Pressure measurement, 11 783 20 644-665. See also Vacuum measurement electronic sensors, 20 651-657 mechanical gauges, 20 646-651 smart pressure transmitters, 20 663-665 terms related to, 20 644-646 Pressure measurement devices. See also Pressure meters Pressure sensors location of, 20 682 types of, 20 681-682 Pressure meters, 20 651 Pressure microfiltration/ultrafiltration,... 

Membranes used for the pressure-driven separation processes, microfiltration, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis, as well as those used for dialysis, are most commonly made of polymeric materials 11. Initially most such membranes were cellulosic in nature. These are now being replaced by polyamide, polysulphone, polycarbonate and a number of other advanced polymers. These synthetic polymers have improved chemical stability and better resistance to microbial degradation. Membranes have most commonly been produced by a form of phase inversion known as immersion precipitation. This process has four main steps (a) the polymer is dissolved in a solvent to 10-30 per cent by mass, (b) the resulting solution is cast on a suitable support as a film of thickness, approximately 100 11 m, (c) the film is quenched by immersion in a non-solvent bath, typically... 

Membrane equipment for industrial scale operation of microfiltration, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis is supplied in the form of modules. The area of membrane contained in these basic modules is in the range 1-20 m2. The modules may be connected together in series or in parallel to form a plant of the required performance. The four most common types of membrane modules are tubular, flat sheet, spiral wound and hollow fibre, as shown in Figures 8.9-8.12. 

The membrane processes of cross-flow microfiltration, ultrafiltration, and reverse osmosis offer excellent potential for continuous removal of these contaminants. The selection of the optimum process is a function of the form of the contaminants present as well as several other factors. 

We can use the same filtration principle for the separation of small particles down to small size of the molecular level by using polymeric membranes. Depending upon the size range of the particles separated, membrane separation processes can be classified into three categories microfiltration, ultrafiltration, and reverse osmosis, the major differences of which are summarized in Table 10.2. 

The four developed industrial membrane separation processes are microfiltration, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and electrodialysis. These processes are all well established, and the market is served by a number of experienced companies. 

Developed industrial membrane separation technologies Microfiltration Ultrafiltration Reverse osmosis Electrodialysis Well-established unit operations. No major breakthroughs seem imminent... 

Beginning in about 1990, the first microfiltration/ultrafiltration plants were installed to treat municipal surface water supplies [14,15], The driver was implementation of an EPA surface water treatment rule requiring all utilities in the United... 

Microfiltration, ultrafiltration, and nanofiltration are becoming standard in feed pretreatment for water desalination, wastewater treatment and fruit-juice concentration. 

A membrane is usually seen as a selective barrier that is able to be permeated by some species present into a feed while rejecting the others. This concept is the basis of all traditional membrane operations, such as microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofil-tration, reverse osmosis, pervaporation, gas separation. On the contrary, membrane contactors do not allow the achievement of a separation of species thanks to the selectivity of the membrane, and they use microporous membranes only as a mean for keeping in contact two phases. The interface is established at the pore mouths and the transport of species from/to a phase occurs by simple diffusion through the membrane pores. In order to work with a constant interfacial area, it is important to carefully control the operating pressures of the two phases. Usually, the phase that does not penetrate into the pores must be kept at higher pressure than the other phase (Figure 20.1a and b). When the membrane is hydrophobic, polar phases can not go into the pores, whereas, if it is hydrophilic, the nonpolar/gas phase remains blocked at the pores entrance [1, 2]. 

Index Entries Secondary membrane backflushing microfiltration ultrafiltration direct visual observation fouling. 

Asymmetric Microporous Nonporous, skinned on microporous substrate Flat-sheet, tubular, hollow fiber Flat-sheet, tubular, hollow fiber Phase-inversion casting or spinning Phase-inversion casting or spinning Microfiltration, ultrafiltration, membrane reactors Reverse osmosis, gas separation, pervaporation, perstraction, membrane reactors... 

Inorganic Isotropic or Microporous Tubular, Sol-gel inversion, sintering, Microfiltration, ultrafiltration,... 

Size Microfiltration, ultrafiltration, dialysis High Medium Low Low... 

Polymeric materials are the most extensively applied for membrane preparation in science and industry [144-150], Polymers for the preparation of membranes are applied, fundamentally, for gas separation [146], reverse osmosis seawater desalination [147,148], microfiltration, ultrafiltration, and nanofiltration [149,150],... 

The work described in this chapter is especially concerned with three of the most widely used pressure driven membrane processes microfiltration, ultrafiltration and nanofiltration. These are usually classified in terms of the size of materials which they separate, with ranges typically given as 10.0-0.1 xm for microfiltration, 0.1 p.m-5 nm for ultrafiltration, and 1 nm for nanofiltration. The membranes used have pore sizes in these ranges. Such pores are best visualised by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) [3]. Figure 14.1 shows an example of a single pore in each of these three types of membrane. An industrial membrane process may use several hundred square meters of membrane area containing billions of such pores. 

A practically useful predictive method must provide quantitative process prediction from accessible physical property data. Such a method should be physically realistic and require a minimum number of assumptions. A method which is firmly based on the physics of the separation is likely to have the widest applicability. It is also an advantage if such a method does not involve mathematics which is tedious, complicated or difficult to follow. For the pressure driven processes of microfiltration, ultrafiltration and nanofiltration, such methods must be based on the microhydrodynamics and interfacial events occurring at the membrane surface and inside the membrane. This immediately points to the requirement for understanding the colloid science of such processes. Any such method must account properly for the electrostatic, dispersion, hydration and entropic interactions occurring between the solutes being separated and between such solutes and the membrane. 

The key challenges with solids removal will be determining the most cost-effective way to remove the solids. Each of the technologies discussed here— microfiltration, ultrafiltration, and clarification—have their benefits and limitations. The big challenge with solids removal, as will be discussed later in this chapter, will be to determine when in the treatment system solids removal should occur. 

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