Advantages and Disadvantages of Membrane Filtration Processes

Advantages
 Flexible; can be used in the separation, concentration and purification of a huge
variety of materials across a wide range industries.

 Microfiltration and ultrafiltration processes can operate as highly efficient

"sieves", capable of fractionating particle species according to size.

 No phase changes involved, both feed and product streams remain in the liquid
form.

 The processes can function effectively at low temperatures.

 Energy requirements are low.

 Processes are relatively simple to scale up.

 Membranes can be manufactured in a uniform and highly precise manner.

Disadvantages

 The processes are prone to membrane fouling effects which lead to decrease
in permeate flux. Expensive cleaning and regeneration schemes may be
necessary.

 The high flow rates used in cross-flow feed can damage shear sensitive
materials.

 Equipment cost can be high.

 If the membrane manufacturing process is not precisely controlled,

membranes with wide pore size distribution may result, giving poor separation
performance.
Membrane Operation
Most pressure-driven membrane processes are operated in the cross-flow fltration
mode. In this process, the feed solution flows tangentially to the membrane
surface. At the membrane surface, the permeating component moves
perpendicularly to the membrane surface.
Permeation flux (trans-membrane flux) is influenced by the following
operating conditions:
• Feed concentration - the permeation flux decreases as the feed concentration
increases owing to the earlier building-up of the polarization layer and to the
viscosity increase of the solution.
• Temperature - Increasing the temperature, there is an increase in the
permeation flux. This is because diffusivity increases with temperature, while the
viscosity decreases.
• Cross-flow Velocity - Higher fluid velocity give higher mass transfer
coefficient and thus higher permeation flux. A higher velocity will also produce in
a thinner deposit for the same flux.
• Trans-membrane pressure (TMP) - The most common way of operating a
membrane filtration process is to maintain a constant TMP.
During operation with constant TMP and feed concentration, the membrane
permeation flux generally declines with time as shown in the Figure.

There is an initial rapid decrease followed by a long and gradual flux

decline. The main phenomenon responsible for this is the fouling of the
membrane used. There is a gradual build-up of deposits
on the membrane surface.
Over time, the permeation flux generally declines with time. Instead of constant TMP
operation, a constant flux operation can be carried out instead. In this case, the TMP is
varied. Under constant flux operation, there exist a critical flux condition in which the
flux remains constant with increasing TMP.

It is important to note that higher initial fluxes lead to more fouling than lower fluxes.
This is due to the large amount of particles deposited at the membrane surface, i.e. very
few of these particles are swept away. The maximum permeation flux that can be
achieved under steady-state condition is known as the limiting flux.

Causes of Flux Decline

In the ideal case, only the membrane resistance (RM) is involved.

However, in actual operation, flux decline can be caused by several factors, such
as concentration polarization, adsorption on pores, gel layer formation (cake
deposition) and plugging of the pores. All these factors induce additional
resistances on the feed side to the transport across the membrane. The Figure shows
schematically these phenomena.

The extent of these phenomena is strongly dependent on the types of membrane

process and feed solution employed.
Flux decline is undesirable and during operation, measures must be taken to
reduce its incidence. Fouling is used generally to include various mechanism
such as gel layer formation, pore blockage, adsorption etc. In addition, fouling
can also result from concentration polarization.
A Model for Particle Deposition in Cross-Flow Membrane Filtration

•During cross-flow filtration, particles are brought to the vicinity of the membrane by
convection, i.e. by convective transport.

•Most particles are retained on the membrane surface and a concentration polarized layer
can be formed on the membrane surface.

•Several forces can act on these particles, all of which could influence the flux across the
membrane. For example, some particles could interact with the membrane by adsorption
on the membrane surface or in the pores. Particles could also remain as individual entities
in the concentration polarized layer if the concentration is low.

•The particles on the membrane surface can be swept across the membrane surface in
tangential flow If they were subjected to adequate shear. This mechanism serves to
reduce the continuous deposition of these particles on the membrane surface. This mode
of cross-flow operation helps limit the effects of concentration polarization and fouling.

•Some particles may also flow through the membrane with the permeating component if
they are small enough or adsorption does not occur strongly or quickly enough.
At sufficiently high concentration, these particles can form a gel layer ("cake") on the membrane
surface. If the repulsive forces are weak or convective forces are high, the particles could become
inter-linked in a "structured" layer, either in potentially reversible loose-bound form or an irreversible
form.

In the reversible form, particles can be detached from the membrane surface back into the bulk
solution by diffusive back-transport. Other particle removal mechanisms such as Brownian
diffusivity, inertial lift and axial transport can also be involved. More than one of these mechanisms
could operate simultaneously depending on the conditions, and none could be considered dominant
for all applications.

At steady-state there is a balance on all the forces involved. Steady-state conditions are reached when
the convective transport of solute to the membrane is balance by the sum of solute flow in the
permeate plus the diffusive back transport of the solute.
 Critical Flux and Operation of Membrane Filtration

Instead of constant TMP operation, membrane filtration can be carried out under constant
flux conditions. In this case, the TMP becomes a dependent variable. This requires an
understanding of the relationship between permeation flux and TMP.
At low pressures, as the TMP is increased the flux increases linearly. At this point, the
relationship is reversible, i.e. when the pressure is reduced the same original fluxes can be
re-established.

At higher trans-membrane pressure, there is an increase of the particle concentration on

the membrane surface and the permeation flux increases only very slowly. At higher
pressures, the flux becomes independent of pressure due to the consolidation of the
particle deposit formed.

The critical flux Jcrit is defined the permeate flux above which an irreversible deposit
(fouling) appears. The critical flux is dependent on the hydrodynamics and system
properties (pH, ionic strength, membrane characteristics, particle characteristics, etc) and
position along the membrane. Below the critical flux, no fouling is observed. Once
Jcrit is exceeded, the particles form a stagnant, consolidated and aggregated structure that
is slow to break-up and re-disperse, a process also known as depolarization.
The permeation flux can be conveniently written as:

A method most commonly employed to establish whether deposition has occurred is to look at
the stability of the trans-membrane pressure (TMP) when a certain flux has been imposed. An
increasing TMP is indicative of a greater resistance provided by the growing polarization layer,
cake formation or fouling. In other words, greater pressure is needed to compensate for the
increase in the resistance to permeation of a certain constant flux.

The region below the critical flux is also known as the sub-critical region. Filtration in this
region is desirable because no fouling could occur and the membrane system could be operated
in a totally clean regime. Cleaning complexity would be eliminated and overall plant design
could be simplified.
Operation above the critical flux causes fouling which reduces flux back to the critical value over time.

Increasing TMP to compensate for flux decline only serve to increase the flux for a transient period
with the stable flux eventually falling to the critical flux.

At this point, reducing the TMP would not restore the original flux, but instead will resulted in a lower
one. This is because fouling of the membrane has already occurred when the critical flux is exceeded.

[ Another flux-related concept as seen earlier is that of the limiting flux. The limiting flux is the flux
beyond which sustained operation is not possible. The limiting flux is the maximum flux that can be
achieved at steady state in an operation; it corresponds to a value of flux for which the critical flux is
reached at all points of the membrane surface. As such, its value may be equal to the critical flux. ]
 Concentration Polarization

In membrane separation processes, a gas or liquid mixture contacts the feed

side of the membrane, and a permeate enriched in one of the components of the
mixture is withdrawn from the downstream side of the membrane.

Because the feed mixture components permeate the membrane at different

rates, there is a gradual build-up in the concentration of non-permeating or
slowly permeating components in the feed as the more permeable components
pass through the membrane.
A layer is formed near the surface of the membrane, whereby the solution
immediately adjacent to the membrane surface becomes depleted in the
permeating solute on the feed side of the membrane, and its concentration is
lower than that in the bulk fluid.

On the other hand, the concentration of the non-permeating component

increases at the membrane surface.
 A concentration gradient is formed in the fluid adjacent to the membrane surface. This
phenomenon is known as concentration polarization and it serves to reduce the
permeating component's concentration difference across the membrane, thereby
lowering its flux and the membrane selectivity.

See the Figure, which showed concentration polarization gradients form only on the feed
side of the membrane, which is true for processes such as reverse osmosis,
ultrafiltration, and gas separation.
The importance of concentration polarization depends on the membrane separation
process. Concentration polarization can significantly affect membrane performance in
reverse osmosis, but it is usually well controlled in industrial systems. On the other hand,
membrane performance in ultrafiltration, electrodialysis and some pervaporation processes
is seriously affected by concentration polarization.

The extent of concentration polarization can be measured using the

concentration polarization modulus. Concentration polarization occurred in different extent
in different processes.

Reducing Concentration Polarization

The Figure showed the methods that can be employed to reduce concentration
polarization. The most straightforward way of minimising concentration polarization is to
reduce the film thickness by increasing turbulent mixing at the membrane surface.

The most direct technique to promote mixing is to increase the fluid flow velocity past the
membrane surface.

Turbulence promoters such as those shown in the Figure can be used in the flow
channels.
Membrane Fouling

Fouling is probably the most frequently encountered problem with membrane

processes, and especially with processes involving liquid feeds.

Fouling is the coating of the membrane surface or blocking of the pores with a
solid or gelatinous material which creates a barrier through which the permeating
components must pass. The effective pore size distribution of the membrane is
reduced. The net effect of blockage is to reduce the flux passing through the
membrane.

Fouling materials can enter the module in the feed as particulates, gels or soluble,
high molecular weight species, or they may precipitate from solution as part of
the feed permeates.

Because there is a flux toward the membrane surface, caused by the flow of
material through the membrane, these fouling substances tend to migrate toward
the membrane surface.
Fouling can be reduced by:

• Pre-filtration of feed to remove concentration of particles, gels, etc before

entering a module. Relatively simple dead-end filtrations are often used.

• Choice of proper form of membrane module, e.g. hollow-fibre is most

susceptible while plate-and-frame configurations are the least.

• Maintaining high velocities on the feed side of the membrane, without

exceeding the module's velocity limit.

• Use of cleaning cycle in membrane operations

Concentration Polarization Modulus

The ratio of the permeate concentration at the membrane surface, C A,mem to the bulk
solution concentration, CA,bulk, is known as the concentration polarization modulus, and
is a useful measure of the extent of concentration polarization. The modulus can be
larger or smaller than 1.0.

The modulus can be determined using:

where:
The membrane enrichment factor, EO is defined as:

When the modulus is 1.0, no concentration polarization occurs; but as the modulus
deviates significantly from 1.0, the effect of concentration polarization on membrane
selectivity and trans-membrane flux becomes increasingly important.
 Comparison of Concentration Polarization

The Table shows a brief comparison of the magnitude of concentration polarization in

processes involving liquid feed solutions (using the assumption of 20-mm boundary
layer thickness for all processes). By convention, concentration polarization effects are
described by considering the concentration gradient of the minor component.

"Membrane Technology and Applications", R.W. Baker

The Figure - part (a) showed a concentration polarization in reverse osmosis (RO),
represented by the concentration gradient of salt, the minor component rejected by the
membrane.

The salt concentration adjacent at the membrane surface C B,mem is higher than the bulk
solution salt concentration, CB,Bulk because the RO membranes preferentially permeate
water and retain salt.

Salt accumulates at the membrane surface until a sufficient gradient has formed to
allow the salt to diffuse to the bulk solution. Steady-state condition is then reached.
In the case of dehydration of ethanol by pervaporation as shown in part (b) of the Figure,
concentration polarization is represented by the concentration gradient of water, the
minor component that permeates the membrane.

The water concentration adjacent to the membrane surface C A,mem is lower than the bulk
solution concentration CA,Bulk because the pervaporation membrane preferentially
permeates water and retains ethanol.

Ethanol accumulates at the membrane surface until a sufficient gradient has formed to
allow it to diffuse back to the bulk solution. An equal and opposite water concentration
gradient is also formed and water becomes depleted at the membrane surface.
Concentration polarization in gas separation processes has not been widely studied, and the
effect is often assumed to be small because of the high diffusion coefficients of gases.