Unsteady-State Permeate Flux of Crossflow Microfiltration

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Abstract
In this study a membrane filtration cell was installed to investigate the variation of permeate flux with filtration time under various operating conditions including crossflow velocity, pressure drop, particle concentration, membrane pore size, particle size, pH, and electrolyte concentration. The dimensions of the filtration channel in the CFMF cell were 6 cm x 0.6 cm x 0.036 cm, and the flow of the suspension in the channel was controlled under the laminar flow region. Spherical polystyrene latex particles of 0.303, 0.606, and 1.020 μm were used as the suspension particles in the experiments. The density of the particles was 1.05 g/cm3. It was found that the unsteady-state permeate flux increased with an increase in particle size, membrane pore size, or crossflow velocity, but decreased with an increase in particle concentration or electrolyte concentration in the suspension. A mathematical model based on mass balance and hydrodynamic theory was developed in this study. In addition, the effect of cake growth and particle concentration decline during experiments on the permeate flux were also considered in this model. This model predicts satisfactorily the unsteady-state permeate flux of CFMF under various operating conditions.