PLANT DESIGN ULTRAFILTRATION

Tale of Contents
1. Introduction:.........................................................................................................................1

2. Application of Ultra Filtration in Process Industry:.............................................................1

3. Principle of Filtration:...........................................................................................................3

4. Types of Membrane Filtration:.............................................................................................3

5. Detail Description of Multi-Tubular Membrane Separation:...............................................6

6. Design:..................................................................................................................................8

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Table of figures:
Figure 1...........................................................................................................................................4
Figure 2...........................................................................................................................................5
Figure 3...........................................................................................................................................5
Figure.4...........................................................................................................................................7

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PLANT DESIGN ULTRAFILTRATION

1. Introduction:

Ultra-filtration (UF) is a variety of membrane filtration in which forces

like pressure orconcentration gradients lead to a separation through a semi-permeable
membrane. Suspended solids and solutes of high molecular weight are retained in the so-called
retentate, while water and low molecular weight solutes pass through the membrane in
the permeate(filtrate). This separation process is used in industry and research for purifying and
concentrating macromolecular (103 -106 Da) solutions, especially protein solutions.Ultra
filtration is not fundamentally different from microfiltration. Both of these separate based on size
exclusion or particle capture. It is fundamentally different from membrane gas separation, which
separate based on different amounts of absorption and different rates of diffusion. Ultra filtration
membranes are defined by the molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of the membrane used. Ultra
filtration is applied in cross-flow or dead-end mode.

2. Application of Ultra Filtration in Process Industry:

Industries such as chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing, food and beverage processing,
and waste water treatment, employ ultra-filtration in order to recycle flow or add value to later
products. Blood dialysis also utilizes ultra-filtration.

 Drinking Water:

Ultra-filtration can be used for the removal of particulates and macromolecules from raw water
to produce potable water. It has been used to either replace existing secondary (coagulation,
flocculation, sedimentation) and tertiary filtration (sand filtration and chlorination) systems
employed in water treatment plants or as standalone systems in isolated regions with growing
populations. When treating water with high suspended solids, UF is often integrated into the
process, utilizing primary (screening, flotation, and filtration) and some secondary treatments as

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pre-treatment stages. UF processes are currently preferred over traditional treatment methods for
the following reasons:
 No chemicals required (aside from cleaning)
 Constant product quality regardless of feed quality
 Compact plant size
 Capable of exceeding regulatory standards of water quality, achieving 90–100%
pathogen removal.

UF processes are currently limited by the high cost incurred due to membrane fouling and
replacement. Additional pretreatment of feed water is required to prevent excessive damage to
the membrane units.In many cases UF is used for pre filtration in reverse osmosis (RO) plants to
protect the RO membranes.
 Protein Concentration:

UF is used extensively in the dairy industry; particularly in the processing of cheese whey to
obtain whey protein concentrate (WPC) and lactose-rich permeate. In a single stage, a UF
process is able to concentrate the whey 10–30 times the feed. The original alternative to
membrane filtration of whey was using steam heating followed by drum drying or sprays drying.
The product of these methods had limited applications due to its granulated texture and
insolubility. Existing methods also had inconsistent product composition, high capital and
operating costs and due to the excessive heat used in drying would often denature some of the
proteins.
Compared to traditional methods, UF processes used for this application:

 Are more energy efficient.

 Have consistent product quality,35–80% protein product depending on operating
conditions.
 Do not denature proteins as they use moderate operating conditions.

The potential for fouling is widely discussed, being identified as a significant contributor to
decline in productivity. Cheese whey contains high concentrations of calcium phosphate which
can potentially lead to scale deposits on the membrane surface. As a result substantial

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pretreatment must be implemented to balance pH and temperature of the feed to maintain

solubility of calcium salts.
 Other Applications:
 Filtration of effluent from paper pulp mill.
 Cheese manufacture, see ultra-filtered milk.
 Removal of pathogens from milk.
 Process and waste water treatment.
 Enzyme recovery.
 Fruit juice concentration and clarification.
 Dialysis and other blood treatments.
 Desalting and solvent-exchange of proteins (via dia-filtration).
 Laboratory grade manufacturing.

3. Principle of Filtration:

The basic operating principle of ultra-filtration uses a pressure induced separation of solutes
from a solvent through a semi permeable membrane. The relationship between the applied
pressure on the solution to be separated and the flux through the membrane is most commonly
described by the Darcy equation:

TMP
J= μR t
Where J is the flux (flow rate per membrane area), TMP is the trans-membrane pressure
(pressure difference between feed and permeate stream), μ is solvent viscosity, R t is the total
resistance (sum of membrane and fouling resistance).

4. Types of Membrane Filtration:

Depending on the shape and material of the membrane, different modules can be used for ultra-
filtration process. Commercially available designs in ultra-filtration modules vary according to
the required hydrodynamic and economic constraints as well as the mechanical stability of the
system under particular operating pressures. The main modules used in industry include:

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Tubular Modules:
The tubular module design uses polymeric membranes cast on the inside of plastic or porous
paper components with diameters typically in the range of 5 – 25 mm with lengths from 0.6 - 6.4
m.[Multiple tubes are housed in a PVC or steel shell. The feed of the module is passed through
the tubes, accommodating radial transfer of permeate to the shell side. This design allows for
easy cleaning however the main drawback is its low permeability, high volume hold-up within
the membrane and low packing density.

Figure 1

Hollow Fiber:
This design is conceptually similar to the tubular module with a shell and tube arrangement. A
single module can consist of 50 to thousands of hollow fibers and therefore are self-supporting
unlike the tubular design. The diameter of each fiber ranges from 0.2–3 mm with the feed
flowing in the tube and the product permeate collected radially on the outside. The advantage of
having self-supporting membranes as is the ease at which it can be cleaned due to its ability to be
back flushed. Replacement costs however are high, as one faulty fiber will require the whole
bundle to be replaced. Considering the tubes are of small diameter, using this design also makes
the system prone to blockage.

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Figure 2

Spiral-Wound Modules:
Are composed of a combination of flat membrane sheets separated by a thin meshed spacer
material which serves as a porous plastic screen support. These sheets are rolled around a central
perforated tube and fitted into a tubular steel pressure vessel casing. The feed solution passes
over the membrane surface and the permeate spirals into the central collection tube. Spiral-
wound modules are a compact and cheap alternative in ultra-filtration design, offer a high
volumetric throughput and can also be easily cleaned. However it is limited by the thin channels
where feed solutions with suspended solids can result in partial blockage of the membrane pores.

Figure 3

Plate and Frame:

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This uses a membrane placed on a flat plate separated by a mesh like material. The feed is passed
through the system from which permeate is separated and collected from the edge of the plate.
Channel length can range from 10–60cm and channel heights from 0.5–1mm. This module
provides low volume hold-up, relatively easy replacement of the membrane and the ability to
feed viscous solutions because of the low channel height, unique to this particular design.

5. Detail Description of Multi-Tubular Membrane Separation:

Tubular membrane filtration is used throughout industrial wastewater filtration processes as an
efficient way to remove contaminants from water. Being that industrial processes can result in
polluted water with chemicals or metals, tubular membrane filtration works as a component of an
industrial water filtration system to provide excellent reduction of contaminants. Tubular
membrane filtration is a pressure driven, cross-flow filtration process using a micro-porous
membrane to separate suspended solids from liquids. This cross-flow process is carried out by
having a process solution flow along a membrane surface under pressure. After water is treated
through a tubular membrane filtration system, it may be discharged, or sent for reverse osmosis
(RO) processing, or it can be further treated for plant reuse/recycling.
Importance of Tubular Membrane:
 Environmental Improvements:
The impact of an industrial processing plant releasing contaminants into the water system is an
ongoing concern for plant personnel and community stakeholders alike. With the need to protect
the environment becoming a bigger concern now more than ever, these plants are being held
accountable for their water consumption and waste water discharge practices.
A system utilizing tubular membrane filters can efficiently remove containments from feed-
water sources to produce high quality water. This water can then be fed into a reverse osmosis
system generating the highest quality fresh water that enables the industrial processing plant to
comply with discharge laws and help keep the local environment safe.
 Reduced Costs:
Many filtration systems utilize RO technology to produce high quality water, but RO systems
struggle to handle high solids loading and are prone to fouling from scalants, such as calcium
and magnesium. Filtration systems that utilize a pretreatment step (including chemical
precipitation) along with TMF technology in front of RO ultra-filters can yield more efficient RO

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performance with longer RO module life. With high water recovery rates and a long service life,
industrial facilities implementing a pre-RO TMF filtration system are able to operate at the most
efficient level possible.
 Long Lasting Technology
TMF systems are engineered to offer years of effective, trouble free performance, making them a
long-term, cost-effective solution for wastewater filtration. Membranes used in a tubular
membrane filter are designed to withstand harsh chemical processing and cleaning and to resist
abrasion. They are designed to function efficiently for many years.
 How Tubular Membrane Works:

Figure.4

Tubular membrane filtration works by feeding water under pressure into the membrane tube.
This pressure forces water though membrane and tube substrate, but does not allow suspended
particles to pass through the membrane. The filtered water (permeate) passes through the
membrane and substrate (support) tube. The suspended particles (retentate) exit the tube and
return to a concentration tank in preparation for another pass through the membrane tube filter.
This process allows for effective, efficient filtration requiring less space than traditional
clarifying filter systems.

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6. Design:
Key Points for Design Ultra-filtration Tubular Membrane:
Reasonable and efficient pretreatment is the key point of a UF system. Most of sewage water
must be treated before flowing into the UF system. Flocculation deposition and filtration are all
necessary. All of UF systems must install a filter which has a pore size to be a lot finer than
150μm as pretreatment to prevent the membrane from being scratched. The design should be
completed by professional training and experienced engineers. As a small design mistake is
likely to make the overall system fail the engineers should conduct adequate research and
analysis at the design stage in order to avoid design defects. The following are the common steps
of the design.
1. Collection of feed water information the information about the feed water is very important
for the system design. The type of water resource, turbidity, suspended solids, COD and BOD all
have to be considered. Also, the designer has to gain enough knowledge about the variation of
the feed water. Some other data, such as colloidal mater content, the types of organic pollutants
and the contents of bacteria and their debris, are hard to determine but still important. The
designer should investigate the case and gain also indirect information. As above mentioned,
some information is difficult to collect usually but still important for system design. The designer
may estimate these data and design accordingly.
2. Selection of operation mode and the flux rate:
Users can confirm the operation mode referring to the design guideline. The flux rate is
determined by the feed water quality and by the membrane properties. For UF membrane
modules, the flux rates are all suggested at 40-90 L/m2 hr in ordinary conditions when the
membrane modules are selected according to the feed water qualities as described in the design
guideline. The flux rates higher than 90 L/m2 hr are usually not suggested. Designer should
determine the flux, duration of operation, backwash, etc. according to the quality of the feed
water. If you encounter a special water, it is recommended to carry out a pilot test to gain the
parameters.
3. Confirmation of number of modules to determine the number of modules of a system needs,
another factor that must be considered is the idle time when the membrane is under backwashing
and the amount of water needed for back washing. For example for a system of a 100 m3/hr with
a flux rate of 80 L/ m2·hr we select OLTRECAP 1060 P-B membranes.

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(1) Confirmation of parameters The backwash program is designed as water washing every 30
min, as top backwash every 15 seconds and bottom backwash every 15 seconds. So the total
washing time is 30 seconds. The CEB program is designed as every 20 times backwash as both
top and bottom backwash and dosing chemical 30 seconds, soak 60 seconds, top backwash 15
seconds, bottom backwash 15 seconds. Then the total CEB time is 120 seconds.
(2) Calculation of service efficiency
The time efficiency is [operation time]/[operation time + washing time + CEB time].
Then the time efficiency is: (30×20)/(30×20+30/60×19+120/60)= 98.12%
(3) Calculation of production efficiency (Supposing the backwash flow is 3times of filtration) the
water production efficiency is: (total production – backwash water consumption – CEB water
consumption)/ total production.
Then the water production efficiency is:
[20*30×3.2-19×(15+15)/60×3×3.2-(30+15+15)/60×3×3.2]/20×30×3.2=94.75%
(4) Confirmation of the number of modules.
The module number is: (required production)/ (production efficiency× service efficiency ×
production of each module).
Then the number of modules is: 100/ (98.12%×94.75%×3.2) ≈34
4. Backwash system design:
A Backwash occurs separately for each system according to the setting time. If it is a small scale
system, the flow rate of the backwash pump is chosen by the flow of the UF unit backwash, and
the backwash pump should be backed-up. If it is a big scale system, we should choose two
pumps as backwash pump. Each system should design a CEB system. We should avoid the water
hammer during the changing to other operation mode.
5. CEB chemicals Chemicals may be added into the backwashing water in order to enhance the
back wash effects. The following formulas are often used:
(1) Injection of HCl to make up the backwash water pH at 2-3. HCl is often used when the
hardness of the feed water is high or when there is a coagulant- related fouling of the membrane.
(2) Injection of NaOH to make up the backwash water pH at 10-13. NaOH addition is often
effective when the feed water has organic pollutants.
(3) Injection of NaClO to make up the backwash water at residue chlorine of 10-30 ppm. NaClO
is often used when the feed water is polluted by organics and bacteria.

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