PULSED ELECTROKINETIC CLEANING OF CELLULOSE NITRATE MICROFILTRATION MEMBRANES

An experimental study has shown that the use of pulsed electric fields can be an effective means of removing particulate materials from polymeric membrane filters and hence of improving the rate of cross-flow filtration. Pulsed electrophoretic membrane cleaning can improve filtration rates by factors of up to 4.8 under the conditions studied, and pulsed electroosmotic membrane cleaning is moderately effective, if membrane and particles have the same sign of zeta-potential The likely success of pulsed electrophoretic membrane cleaning is in qualitative agreement with a force balance model under such conditions. For particles and membranes of differing sign of zeta-potential, such particles being partly aggregated, neither process was very successful at improving filtration rates, the effects being generally less favorable than predicted by a force balance model. Pulsed electrophoretic membrane cleaning is a promising process meriting further investigation.