Online Measurement of Fouling Layer Thickness

A schematic diagram of thickness measurement of a growing cake on the membrane surface during cross-flow filtration of a particulate suspension is 

Ouazzani and Bentama [20] further applied this technique to microfiltration of a Saccharomyces cereuisiae suspension and found that the response time of the sensor is lower than 1 s and the measurements are stable for a duration in excess of 1 h. 

Their measurements show that the maximum percentage of deviation from the averaged value from five tests performed under the same conditions is about 4%. 

Based on the examinations of sensitivity, precision, accuracy and valid range, they concluded that this is a promising technique to measure cake thickness of biological particles. This method has the benefits of low cost, easy installation and accuracy compared to gamma-ray absorption, NMR microimaging and computerized axial tomographic scans (CATSCAN) techniques. The fact that this method can only be applied to a flat plate membrane module is its major limitation. 

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