Microalgae filtration by UF membranes: influence of three membrane materials

Abstract

A B S T R A C TTo evaluate the impact of membrane material on the ultrafiltration performance of microalgae medium, three types of UF membranes: polysulfone membrane GR40PP (PS, MWCO = 100,000 Da), fluoro polymer membrane FS40PP (PVDF, MWCO = 100,000 Da), regenerated cellulose acetate membrane RC70PP (RCA, MWCO = 10,000 Da) were used in this work. Influence of transmembrane pressure (1.3, 1.8, 2.3 bar) and cross-flow velocity (3.86, 4.83, 5.79, 7.72 m/s) on the permeate flux was studied. It was observed that the permeate flux increased with increasing transmembrane pressure for all membranes. Moreover, permeate flux increased as the cross-flow velocity increased. The fluoro polymer membrane showed the most significant improvement of flux (from 83.27 to 136.32 L/m 2 h) with increase in crossflow velocity, which may suggest that the fouling materials attached more weakly on the membrane surface as the cross-flow velocity increased. Hydrophilic RCA membrane had a much lower fouling tendency than hydrophobic PS and PVDF membranes. To maximize flux recovery for the algae-fouled membranes, NaOH, NaOCl, and Ultrasil 10 were applied as cleaning agents. Ultrasil 10 with concentration of 0.5 wt.% was more effective than other agents for membrane cleaning.

The impact of algogenic organic matter on water treatment plant operation and water quality: A review

“…Selection of membrane type should also be considered. Studies are in agreement that hydrophobic membranes are more susceptible to fouling by AOM, including faster flux decline and more adsorptive and irreversible fouling that hydrophilic membranes (Sun et al 2013;Qu et al 2014). Zhou et al (2014b) found little difference with respect to flux decline between hydrophobic and hydrophilic membranes but observed that irreversible fouling was slightly greater for the hydrophobic membrane as previously discussed.…”

Characteristics of coconut protein separation process by means of membrane ultrafiltration

“…Furthermore, the filtration performance of other conditions also showed the resemble trend, which were the more pressure was applied, the smaller permeate flux was obtained and the similar result was found in Giri and Mangaraj (2014). Although, there were several studies reported that the relationship between TMP and permeate flux of other feed liquid was linear (Sun, Wang, Tong, Wang, & Wei, 2014;Tansel, Sager, Garland, & Xu, 2009), the results recorded in this study showed that the cake layer of CPC suspension, which developed on the membrane surface, had a compressible property which is corresponding to Ng et al (2014). was generated by the fluid flow, helped slow down the formation of the fouling (Krueger & Pouponnot, 2009).…”

Harvesting microalgal biomass using negatively charged polysulfone patterned membranes: Influence of pattern shapes and mechanism of fouling mitigation

“…These numbers are all much higher than in literature, even though broth conditions will surely be slightly different. A flat PSf membrane used in the cross-flow system for C. pyrenoidosa harvesting, showed a maximum CWP of 270 L/m 2 h bar and a broth flux of 92 L/m 2 h bar (Sun et al, 2014). A negatively charged PC membrane was used for C. vulgaris harvesting, showing a maximum membrane flux in a microalgal broth of 133 L/m 2 h bar (Huang et al, 2020).…”