Investigation of Membrane Fouling along Membrane Surface during Cross-Flow Micro-Filtration of Semiconductor Wastewater

Abstract

Simulation method was applied to study the fouling behavior during the Micro-filtration of Semi-conductor wastewater. In the numerical model, concentration dependent physical properties such as suspension viscosity, density and generalized particle transport diffusivity were considered. The mechanism of suspension transition from liquid phase to gel phase was adopted to characterize the formation of membrane fouling. Fouling resistance distribution along the membrane surface was obtained from the simulation. The results revealed the mass transfer character in the concentration boundary layer and its influence on the formation of membrane fouling. Agreement between the simulation and the experiment results demonstrated the applicability of this numerical method in evaluating membrane fouling during Micro-filtration.