Vibrating polymeric microsieves: Antifouling strategies for microfiltration

Amphiphile grafted membranes for the separation of oil-in-water dispersions

“…Fouling of the membrane, either reversible or irreversible, dramatically decreases the permeability [8,16]. Some membrane treatments alter surface chemistry [17,18], thus changing the permeability.…”

High-frequency flow reversal for continuous microfiltration of milk with microsieves

“…In rare cases precipitation of calcium phosphate at high temperature can result in flux decline as well. The main serum proteins (4-10 nm in size) seem to preferentially adsorb onto the membrane surface upon contact and casein micelles (20-300 nm in size) are introduced into the fouling layer by the application of trans-membrane pressure, leading to irreversible permanent changes in surface properties [11,15,16]. Fat globules are an important component of milk as well, and their contribution in the fouling of membranes can be even larger than from proteins.…”

“…The impulse may be caused by a sudden pressure change reversing the flow direction through the membrane. The efficiency of back pulsing as an additional cleaning technique for both conventional membranes and microsieves has been shown in many studies [4,15,16]. The back pulse is essential to inhibit cake layer formation on the top of membrane.…”

A membrane stirrer for product recovery and substrate feeding

“…Various backflushing techniques with different intervals and frequencies recover the product flux to its initial value (Carstensen et al, ; de Ven et al, ; Prip Beier and Jonsson, ; Suzuki et al, ). Moreover membrane vibration (Gironés i Nogué et al, ; Kim et al, ; Mezohegyi et al, ; Prip Beier and Jonsson, ), agitation (Dhariwal, ; Mallubhotla et al, ; Park et al, ), and aeration (Park et al, ; Su, ; Suzuki et al, ) reduce fouling significantly.…”