Research Abstracts

Membrane fouling is universally accepted as one of the critical problems limiting the wider application of membranes in liquid–solid separation. The in-situ ultrasonic application is one of the promising methods for reducing the extent of concentration polarization and increasing permeate flux durin

There is limited information available to describe how the recycle ratios of the retentate and permeate streams can be used to counteract the effects of fluctuations in feed flowrate and composition on the flowrate and composition of the retentate stream from a whey ultrafiltration (UF) process. Bas

Model for concentration polarization enhanced by gel accumulated at membrane surface has been proposed. It provides distribution of concentration in the liquid phase and within the gel layer. Model allows analyzing the influence of thickness of fouling layer on the CP degree, surface concentration,

Organic fouling and its effects on trace organic retention by three nanofiltration (NF) membranes were investigated in this study. Accelerated fouling conditions were achieved with foulant cocktails containing humic acids in a background electrolyte solution. The effects of membrane fouling on the s

In this work we investigate the performance of inorganic membranes in desalination application using a low pressure pervaporation setup. Inorganic membranes were synthesized via a two-step sol–gel catalysed process employing tetraethylorthosilicate as the silica precursor. In addition, non-ligand su

Generally, a membrane is a composite and is made by forming a skin layer on a support. Then, the support will also affect the rejection, since the support affects the ion flux. In practical terms, however, the effect of support on membrane performances is almost always neglected. In this paper, the

To control NOM fouling, either NOM or hardness ions can be (partly) removed before membrane filtration. In this work, anion Fluidized Ion Exchange (FIX) is used to remove NOM from untreated surface water and cation FIX is used to remove calcium and magnesium ions from untreated surface water. The ef

This study involves the preparation of a number of polymer inclusion membranes (PIMs) using a variety of commercial solvent extraction reagents immobilized in cellulose triacetate (CTA), cellulose acetate, poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC), PVC co-polymerized with vinyl alcohol and vinyl acetate, and carbo

Concentrate of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis installations is an increasing problem, especially for inland membrane installations. Introduction of membrane filtration in The Netherlands is severely hindered by the concentrate problem. Two approaches are viable for solving or reducing the concen

Gulf countries experienced rapid growth in the last four decades from oil production and its price increase. Natural water resources are very limited to meet this growth, and as result, desalted seawater in Kuwait became the main source of potable water, about 93% in 2002. The electric power and des