HYDRODYNAMIC MODEL AND EXPERIMENTS FOR CROSSFLOW MICROFILTRATION

Crossflow microfiltration, in which a suspension is passed through a pressurized open-ended tube or channel having microporous membrane walls, is an effective means of filtering fine particles from a liquid and is finding increasing application in separations involving microbial suspensions and products. The particles, which are carried toward the walls with the filtrate cross-flow, form a thin cake layer on the membrane surface which does not accumulate substantially but is rather swept along the channel by the tangential flow of suspension. This paper presents a stratified-flow model of this phenomenon which predicts the steady-state permeation flux, and the velocity, pressure, and concentrated particle layer thickness profiles, as functions of the system parameters. In addition, the results of laboratory experiments which used a crossflow microfiltration channel with glass sides are reported. The measured steady-state thickness of the cake layer as a function of distance from the channel entrance shows good agreement with the theory, except for the case of a relatively thick layer when it is believed that a stagnant sublayer had formed beneath the flowing cake layer.     

Modeling of fouling in cross-flow microfiltration of suspensions

Cross-flow filtration of fine suspensions through microsieves occurs in microprocessing. The interaction of particles with surfaces in microenvironments has been extensively studied, but predominantly in monolayers and not with an eye to microfiltration. Here, we introduce a microfiltration model that pertains to particles that might be seen as fine in a macroscopic environment, but are large enough to intrude significantly into the shear layer of a microchannel. Thus, particle accumulation upon the sieve couples the steady-state filtrate flux and the suspension flow through the microchannel that feeds the sieve. We envision and create a stable, stationary multilayer of particles whose thickness is shear-limited and we identify and verify the structure and parameters that limit steady filtration in this environment. At first, a packed bed of particles forms, growing into and regulated by the micro channel's shear flow. A critical shear stress is shown to determine the thickness of the bed, seen as a stationary and stable multilayer of particles through which filtration may occur. As the bed thickens, at the expense of channel area for suspension flow, surface shear stress increases until no further particle adherence is possible. We built a simple example using hard noninteracting polymer microspheres and conducted cross-flow filtration experiments over Aquamarijn™ microsieves (uniform pore size of 0.8 μm). We observed a steady cake-layer thickness and because of the simple geometry afforded by uniform spheres, we could approximate the force balance, cake resistance, and filtration rate from first principles. The good fit of our data to the proposed mechanism lays a firm basis for the semiquantitative analysis of the behavior of more complex suspensions. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 65: 207–213, 2019     

Effect of cake layer structure on colloidal fouling in reverse osmosis membranes

A series of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane filtration experiments was performed systematically in order to investigate the effects of various hydrodynamic and physicochemical operational parameters on a cake layer formation in colloidal and particulate suspensions. Bench-scale fouling experiments with a thin-film composite RO membrane were performed at various combinations of trans-membrane pressure (TMP), cross-flow velocity (CFV), particle size, pH, and ionic strength. In this study, silica particles with two different mean diameters of 0.1 and 3.0 μm were used as model colloids. Membrane filtration experiments with colloidal suspensions under various hydrodynamic operating conditions resulted that more significant permeate flux decline was observed as TMP increased and CFV decreased, which was attributed to the higher accumulative mass of particles on the membrane surface. Results of fouling experiments under various physicochemical operating conditions demonstrated that the rate of flux decline decreased significantly with an increase of the ionic strength as well as particle size, while the flux decline rate did not vary when solution pH changed. The experimentally measured cake layer thickness increased with a decrease in particle size and solution ionic strength. Furthermore, the model estimation of cake layer thickness by using a cake filtration theory based on the hydraulic resistance of membrane and cake layer was performed under various ionic strength conditions. The primary model parameters including accumulated mass and specific cake resistance were calculated from the cake layer resistance. This result indicated that the formation of cake layer could be closely related with solution water chemistry. The model estimated cake layer thickness values were in good agreement with the experimentally measured values.     

管式膜十字流微滤过程分析

分析了管式膜器中过滤悬浮液从膜管外壁向内壁渗透过滤的过程。以流体力学分析为基础 ,利用力平衡原理和多孔介质渗透定律 ,分析了该结构的过滤特性和滤饼形成特点及规律。     

The Effect of Large Particles on Microfiltration of Small Particles

The effects of the presence of large latex (1 m) particles on the microfiltration of small gold (50 nm) colloidal suspensions have been investigated using hydrophobic 0.22 m polyvinylidene fluoride (GVHP) micro-filtration (MF) membranes. Gold sol was filtered through the membrane with or without prefiltration of latex suspension. The characteristics of the cake formed on the membrane surface depends not only on the intrinsic properties of the particles in the feed but also depends on the nature of the mixture. The type of cake formation (e.g. a cake of small particles on the top of large particles or a cake of mixed particles) affects the cake properties due to the combination effect. This can be explained by the type of filling of the voidage between large particles with small particles. Various combinations of these particles result in cakes with different resistances. The understanding of the combination effect and the type of cake formation has a potential application for fouling minimization.Fouling is surprisingly serious in microfiltration of the feeds containing mixed particles. Separation of large particles prior to the microfiltration of suspension of small particles can reduce cake resistance and minimize fouling.     

EFFECTS OF AXIAL PRESSURE DROP ON THE LENGTH-AVERAGED PERMEATE FLUX IN CROSSFLOW MICROFILTRATION

A hydrodynamic model is presented which predicts the dependence of the steady-state, length-averaged permeate flux on the longitudinal pressure drop during crossflow microfiltration in both flat slit and tubular channels. The integral approach described by Romero and Davis (1988) has been extended to predict the axial variation of the transmembrane pressure drop along with that of permeate flux and cake layer thickness. The mechanism of shear-induced diffusion is employed in the analysis, which is restricted to particles with diameters of approximately 0.5-20μm (Davis, 1992), but the procedures may be extended to other particle transport mechanisms. The model predictions have been compared to the corresponding values calculated using a constant transmembrane pressure drop set equal to the arithmetic mean of those at the channel entrance and exit. The simulation results show the axial pressure drop to have the most significant effect on the average, steady-state permeate flux predictions for long, tubular channels with small critical lengths, operating under membrane resistance limited conditions and low transmembrane pressures. Neglecting the axial pressure drop, under typical operating conditions, results in as much as a 50% overestimation of the length-averaged, steady-state permeate flux.     

Verfahren zur Mikrofiltration von Prozeßlösungen und ihre Anwendungen

Approaches to microfiltration of process solutions and its application. Particles and microorganisms in the site range of 0.02 to 10 μm are reliably removed by microfiltration processes. Microporous polymer membranes are suitable as filter medium. The particles are then separated mainly on the exterior surface (surface filtration). This leads to formation of a covering layer on the membrane and a relatively high hydraulic resistance. Dynamic filtration processes counteract covering layer formation. The most widely developed technique is crossflow microfiltration, in which the membrane is subject to continuous flow of the suspension. The development of large membrane units fulfils requirements for large-scale industrial application of crossflow microfiltration.     

Effect of operating parameters and membrane characteristics on the permeate rate and selectivity of ultra- and microfiltration membranes in the depth filtration model

The effect of transmembrane pressure, pore depth and initial radius, inlet concentration of suspended particles, and particle-collection efficiency of pore walls on the permeate rate and selectivity of ultraand microfiltration membranes with pores of the same radius operated under standard blocking conditions is studied using the previously developed depth filtration model, which takes into account the nonuniform capture of particles over the pore depth. It is shown that the variation of permeate rate and selectivity with time in standard blocking strongly depends on the studied parameters. Simple analytical formulas for calculating the membrane permeate rate and selectivity as well as the time at which the pore diameter reaches the cutoff value (time at which the transition to cake filtration takes place) are proposed. The formulas make it possible to find the values of the filter coefficient, which accounts for the particle-collection efficiency of membrane pore walls, and the cutoff pore diameter using the experimental curve of the membrane selectivity. It is demonstrated that the use of the classical Hermia standard blocking model for describing the experimental data on membrane permeate rate can lead to high errors, which are caused by its assumption on the uniform profile of the layer of particles caught inside the pore.     

湿式催化氧化/膜过滤组合工艺膜过滤机理

采用湿式催化氧化/膜过滤组合工艺,以Mo-Zn-Al-O粉末作为催化剂降解阳离子红GTL模拟染料废水,探讨在膜过滤过程中平均孔径为0.1 μm的微滤和0.022 μm的超滤聚偏氟乙烯(PVDF)中空纤维膜的过滤机理。实验结果表明,两种膜过滤组合工艺对染料的降解效果均优于单独湿式催化氧化,0.01 MPa恒压条件下运行120 min后微滤和超滤的膜通量分别衰减了26.63%和16.48%,其原因是粉末催化剂可在微滤膜孔内部沉积形成中间阻塞过滤,后在表面形成滤饼层;而在超滤膜表面仅形成滤饼层。通过实验结果对膜阻力进行计算,可知在相同反应过程后微滤膜产生的不可逆阻力大于超滤膜。在不同反应条件下,催化剂的沉积量与膜阻力呈现线性相关。     

颗粒粒径和膜孔径对陶瓷膜微滤微米级颗粒悬浮液的影响

通过测定颗粒悬浮液通过陶瓷微滤膜时的参透通量及污染阻力,确定了陶瓷膜处理微米级颗粒悬浮液时,颗粒粒径和膜孔径对微滤过程的影响和膜污染机理,获得了微米级颗粒悬浮液微滤过程中膜孔径的选择方法。