Development of the MFI-UF in constant flux filtration

The MFI-UF, based on cake filtration, was developed to measure and predict the particulate fouling potential of feedwater to membrane filtration installations. The MFI-UF is determined in constant pressure filtration with the flux deceasing during the test. However, many membrane systems, e.g., reverse osmosis (110), operate at constant flux with pressure increasing when fouling occurs. As both pressure and flux contribute to cake compression, determining the MFI-UF in constant flux with correction to the flux of an RO system is expected to more closely simulate particulate fouling Therefore, this research investigated the development of the MFI-UF test in constant flux filtration applying low (tap water) and high fouling (diluted canal water) feedwater. Preliminary experiments were promising; the fouling index (1) (and hence the MFI-UF) of all feedwater could be determined within 2 h under constant flux filtration. Cake filtration was demonstrated as (1) a minimum in the fouling indexvs time plot and (2) by linearity of the fouling index with feedwater particulate concentration. The fouling index increased with increasing applied flux due to cake compression. Further investigation at higher and lower applied flux is required to identify a reference test flux and to develop a method to correct the fouling index to the reference test flux and/or the flux of a membrane filtration system The fouling index can then be applied in a model to predict fouling.