PULSED ELECTROCHEMICAL CLEANING OF INORGANIC MICROFILTRATION MEMBRANES

The effect of the application of pulsed electric fields during cross-flow microfiltration has been studied at two novel types of inorganic membrane. Pulsed electrophoretic membrane cleaning was shown to be a very effective, improving filtration rates at anodic film membranes (Anopore) by factors of up to 6.5 under the conditions studied. Improvements were also measured at zirconia membranes (Ceramesh). The incorporation of a mesh in these latter membranes allowed direct use of the membrane as an electrode, giving a potential simplification in module design. Application of a force balance model incorporating changes in the resistances to flow on application of the electric field showed that the likelihood of membrane cleaning depended on the interplay of two opposing phenomena of comparable magnitude-particle electrophoresis and membrane/filter cake electro-osmosis. However, due to the complexity of the phenomena involved, such an approach can not readily lead to a quantitative prediction of the effectiveness of membrane cleaning. KEYWORDS: Membrane, Filtration Microfiltration, Electrofiltration, Electrophoresis.