Special Issue 9504 - Fouling and Cleaning in Pressure Driven Membrane Processes

Publication description

By Group B47 – Membrane processing

The four main pressure driven membrane processes now in use in the dairy industry are ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, microfiltration and nanofiltration. This monograph focuses on performance, which is a key issue in the use of membrane processes by the industry. The title reflects the two major subjects involved in the performance. An attempt is made to narrow the gap between factory practice and scientific work. Practice requires mostly a quick solution of a performance problem, which often means a trial-and-error approach. The scientific work is sometimes published in specific membrane journals unknown to the dairy industry.

This monograph is made up of three main parts:

Part 1 – Physico-chemical aspects of fouling – deals with the build-up of a fouling layer by dairy liquids.

Part 2 – Minimization of fouling – focuses on the minimization of the fouling by application of pretreatment of the feed, specific process conditions, selection of equipment, etc.

Part 3 – Cleaning of membrane systems – highlights the cleaning aspects, including also recycling of cleaning solutions of typical dairy operations.

This monograph aims to provide a better understanding of the fouling and cleaning phenomena in industrial membrane installations. These phenomena can contribute greatly to the success or failure of industrial membrane processes, together with the production aspects such as level and quality of the final product, total operating costs, pollution aspects and life time of membranes.