Separation of Microorganisms by Filtration and Microfiltration

Microfiltration can be categorized between conventional filtration and UF. The process is used to filter very small particles (usually <10 pm in size) from a suspension, by using a membrane with very fine pores. Example of microfiltration include the separation of some microorganisms from their suspension, and the separation of blood cells from whole blood, using a microporous membrane. 

Process Description Microfiltration (MF) separates particles from true solutions, be they liquid or gas phase. Alone among the membrane processes, microfiltration may be accomplished without the use of a membrane. The usual materi s retained by a microfiltra-tion membrane range in size from several [Lm down to 0.2 [Lm. At the low end of this spectrum, very large soluble macromolecules are retained by a microfilter. Bacteria and other microorganisms are a particularly important class of particles retained by MF membranes. Among membrane processes, dead-end filtration is uniquely common to MF, but cross-flow configurations are often used. 

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