STEADY-STATE PERMEATE FLUX OF CROSS-FLOW MICROFILTRATION

A membrane filtration cell was employed in this study to investigate the steady-state permeate flux of cross-flow microfiltration under various operating conditions, including wall shear rate, particle size, membrane pore size, and electrolyte concentration. Spherical polystyrene latex particles were used as the suspension particles in the experiments. The flow of the suspension in the filtration channel was controlled under the laminar Row region. It was observed in the experiments that a true steady state was not reached due to a small amount of impurities in deionized water. Consequently, a quasi-steady state was assumed, and it was obtained experimentally for each operating condition. The quasi-steady-state permeate flux increased with increasing wall shear rate or membrane pore size, but decreased with an increase in electrolyte concentration in the suspension. Furthermore, a mathematical model based on a moment balance of the hydrodynamic and interparticle forces exerted on a single spherical particle retained on the surface of the membrane was developed and used to predict the quasi-steady-state permeate flux satisfactorily.