We investigated effects of microfiltration (MF) on heat transfer fouling tendencies of thin stillage. A stainless steel MF membrane (0.1 micron pore size) was used to remove solids from thin stillage. At filtration conditions of 690kPa, the MF process effectively recovered total solids from thin stillage. Thin stillage was concentrated from 7.0% to 22.4% solids with average permeate flux rates ...

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are advanced tools for biological wastewater treatment to obtain high-quality treated water using ultrafiltration or microfiltration membranes for solid–liquid separation2). Despite their advantages over the conventional activated sludge method, a major challenge associated with the use of MBRs is membrane fouling, which involves the clogging of membrane pores due to...

Organic matter leads to one of the biggest problems in membranes: fouling. Developing efficient cleaning processes is therefore crucial. This study systematically examines how alginic acid fouling formed under different physical and chemical conditions affect osmotic backwashing cleaning efficiency in forward osmosis (FO). The fouling layer thickness before and after osmotic backwashing was mea...

This study investigated the effects of soluble organic matters on membrane fouling characteristics, using silt density index (SDI) and modified fouling index (MFI) to evaluate the fouling potential. Experimental results demonstrated that humic acid had significant effects on membrane fouling indexes. When its concentration was in the range of 0.01-0.05 mg/L, the SDI(15) and MFI were 2.9-3.9 and...

Membrane separation technologies have recently received much attention, from lab-scale studies to full-scale operations, in the forest industry. However, membrane fouling comprises a signifcant obstacle to their broad application. Thus, to ensure cost-effective operation of membrane separation processes, the improved elucidation of membrane fouling and establishment of e...

The application of anion exchange resins (AERs) has been limited by the critical problem of resin fouling, which increases the volume of the desorption concentrate and decreases treatment efficiency. To date, resin fouling has not been well studied and is poorly understood compared to membrane fouling. To reflect the resin fouling level, a resin fouling index (RFI) was established in this work ...

The study of the fouling deposition of pink guava juice (PGJ) is relatively new research compared to milk fouling deposit. In this work, a new experimental set-up was developed to imitate the fouling formation in heat exchanger, namely a continuous flow experimental set-up heat exchanger. The new experimental setup was operated under industrial pasteurization temperature of PGJ, which was at 93...

In this work we aim to show that the overall surface potential is a key factor to understand and predict anti-fouling characteristics of a polymer membrane. Therefore, polyvinylidene fluoride membranes were modified by electron beam-induced grafting reactions forming neutral, acidic, alkaline or zwitterionic structures on the membrane surface. The differently charged membranes were investigated...

Microstructured devices are widely used for manufacturing products that benefit from process intensification, with pharmaceutical products or specialties of the chemical industry being prime examples. These devices are ideally used for processing pure fluids. Where particulate or non-pure flows are involved, processes are treated with utmost caution since related fouling and blocking issues pre...

The membrane bioreactor (MBR) has emerged as an efficient compact technology for municipal and industrial wastewater treatment. The major drawback impeding wider application of MBRs is membrane fouling, which significantly reduces membrane performance and lifespan, resulting in a significant increase in maintenance and operating costs. Finding sustainable membrane fouling mitigation strategies ...