Principals of

Membrane Technology
SAN 327

Dr. Samia Abdelrahman

Lecture 2
Membrane
Classification
 Removal
Structure
mechanism

Materials Flow regimes

Membrane
Classification Configuration Driving force

Flow direction
during
filtration
Removal mechanism
Structure

• isotropic (symmetric),
• anisotropic (asymmetric)
Materials
• The most common membrane materials used in
water treatment are polypropylene (PP),
polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), polysulfone (PS),
polyethersulfone (PES), and cellulose acetate
(CA), although some membrane manufacturers
do not release information on their material
chemistry.
Flow regimes

Permeate flux and fouling are affected by the flow

regime of the feed water near the membrane surface.
Two filtration strategies, cross-flow filtration and dead-
end filtration
 In cross-flow filtration, the feed water is pumped at a high rate
through the lumen of inside-out membrane fibers. The cross-
flow velocity, typically 0.5 to 1 m/s (1.6 to 3.3 ft/s), is parallel to
the membrane surface and about four orders of magnitude
greater than the superficial velocity of water toward the
membrane surface.
The velocity parallel to the membrane surface creates a shear
force that reduces the development of a surface cake.

Because many solids are carried away with the retentate instead
CROSS- of accumulating on the membrane surface, the system can be
operated at a higher flux or with longer intervals between
backwashes.
FLOW The retentate is recirculated to the feed water, so cross-flow

FILTRATION filtration requires a substantial recirculation flow—the permeate

flow is typically less than 25 percent of the feed flow.

The retentate can be returned directly to the feed line to the

membrane modules or to a mixing basin upstream of the
modules. In either case, the solids content of the feed water will
increase due to the recirculation.

Either the feed-and-bleed or the semibatch procedure can be

used to control the solids content in the recycle line.
 The bulk feed water flow is transverse
(perpendicular) to and toward the membrane
surface during dead-end filtration, so all solids
accumulate on the membrane during the filtration
cycle and are removed during the backwash cycle.

The greater solids accumulation during the filter

run may result in lower average flux values than
Dead-end those achieved with cross-flow filtration.
FILTRATION
The dead-end flow regime is most common in
membrane filtration for water treatment, in contrast
to many industrial microfiltration and ultrafiltration
applications.
Configuration
Submerged: Sidestream (pressure
ZeeWeed (GE), vessels): Norit X-Flow,
Kubota SMU, Bio- Berghof Membrane
Cell (Microdyn- Technology,
Nadir) Millenniumpore, etc.
 Submerged systems (also called immersed membranes)
are modules of membranes suspended in basins
containing feed water. The basins are open to the
atmosphere, so pressure on the influent side is limited to
the static pressure provided by the water column.

Transmembrane pressure is developed by a pump that

develops suction on the permeate side of the membranes;
thus submerged systems are sometimes called suction- or
vacuum-based systems.

Submerged systems Because clean water is extracted from the feed basin
through the membranes and solids are returned directly to
the feed tank during the backwash cycle, the solids
concentration in the feed tank can be significantly higher
than in the raw water.

Two basic strategies are used to maintain the proper solids

concentration in the feed tank, (1) the feed-and-bleed
strategy and (2) the semibatch strategy.
Submerged systems
• In the feed and bleed strategy, a small waste
stream is continuously drawn from the feed
tank. The average solids concentration in the
tank will be a function of the size of the waste
stream:
Submerged systems
• The semibatch strategy operates without a
continuous waste stream, and the feed and
permeate flows are at the same rate. As a result,
solids accumulate in the feed tank during the
filtration cycle. During the backwash cycle, the
volume of water in the tank increases due to the
addition of the backwash flow (raw water
continues to flow to the tank during the
backwash cycle), and the excess water (and
solids) exits the basin through an overflow
trough or port.
Driving Force
Pressure
driven
membranes
Fundamental
parameters
• When the driving force is pressure
Flow direction during filtration

• Filtration occurs as water passes through

the wall of the fiber. Some manufacturers
have designed membrane systems to filter
from outside to inside (the feed water is
against the shell, or outside the fiber, and
the permeate is in the lumen, or inside the
fiber), and other manufacturers have
designed systems to filter in the opposite
direction (inside out).
• Pressure vessels use either outside-in or
inside-out membranes, while submerged
systems use only outside-in membranes.
Flow direction
during filtration

Outside-in Inside-out

Dead end 1. Dead end 2. Cross flow

filtration filtration filtration
Flow
direction
during
filtration
Flow direction
during filtration
Example:
A membrane module contains 10,000 fibers. The
fibers are 1 m long with an outside diameter of 1.9
mm and an inside diameter of 0.8 mm. Calculate
the flux necessary to produce a flow of 2000 L/h
from the module if the flow is (1) outside in and (2)
inside out. Compare the two answers.
Thanks