Controlled flux behavior of membrane processes

Controlling ultrafiltration (UF) and microfiltration (MF) membrane fluxes at or around a region where fouling is minimal can provide an interesting and economic operating regime. Selectivity may be enhanced and cleaning may be easier. For a given flux it is sometimes possible to filter a product suspension at the same trans-membrane pressure (TMP) as for pure water (PWP), but this can require a lot of energy input to maintain cross-flow or high shear in other ways if high fluxes are required. The crit. flux is the flux above which one starts to observe fouling. By operating at lower cross-flow velocities and just above the crit. flux, and thus, with lower TMPs, periodic cleaning can be effected by temporarily stopping permeation. A change in feed rate demands a change in flux which is obtained by temporarily increasing energy inputs. Controlled flux improves macromol. fractionation. As flux increases the rejection of high mol. wt. materials decreases while that of lower mol. wt. materials decreases. This paper discusses the causes of fouling and the use controlled flux operation to mitigate its effects. [on SciFinder (R)]