Tubular membrane modules characteristics

In Table 16.2 some of the typical characteristics of the various types of membranes and configurations are given. In MBR systems SW membrane modules are not used as the channels within the spiral are prone to clogging when the feed water has high suspended-solids concentrations. Tubular membrane systems are not common either as they tend to become very expensive due to the low area to volume ratio. Commercial MBR systems today are normally based on immersed FS configurations or H F/CT configurations. 

The membrane shapes described are usually incorporated into compact commercial modules and cartridges. The four more common types of modules are (1) plate-and-frame, (2) spiral-wound, (3) tubular, and (4) hollow-fiber. Table 9.2 is a comparison of the characteristics of these four types of modules. The packing density refers to the surface area per unit volume of module, for which the hollow-fiber modules are clearly superior. However, hollow-fiber modules are highly susceptible to fouling and very difficult to clean. The spiral-wound module is very popular for most applications because of its low cost and reasonable resistance to fouling. 

Crossflow filtration membranes are available in a variety of configurations. These are hollow fiber, tubular, flat plate, spiral wound, and rotating. Some key characteristics of each module are given in Table 12.2 reproduced here from [6]. 

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