Submerged hollow fibre membrane filtration with transverse and longitudinal vibrations
Author
Li, Tian (CEE)
Law, Adrian Wing-Keung
Fane, Anthony Gordon
Date of Issue
2013School
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Centre
Singapore Membrane Technology Centre
Version
Accepted version
Abstract
A comparative study of transverse and longitudinal vibrations of submerged hollow fibre membranes for fouling control was carried out in this paper. The same membrane module was adopted in the comparison, and the reactor geometry was identical. The orientation between the vibration and membrane fibre directions was the only difference between the two. The feed suspensions included both inorganic Bentonite and organic yeast suspensions. The results showed that transverse vibrations were generally more effective in terms of fouling reduction even at a very low vibration frequency of 1 Hz, which may be attributed to the separating boundary layers and the associated secondary flows around the cylindrical membrane fibres. The difference between the two orientations was very substantial in Bentonite suspensions, but less so in yeast suspensions due to the main membrane foulants of cell debris in the yeast components which caused the pore blockage of the membrane. A small degree of fibre looseness was found to further improve membrane performance with transverse vibrations in both Bentonite and yeast suspensions due to additional lateral fibre movement. The effect of packing density of the membrane bundle in transverse vibrations was also examined. The results showed that at larger vibration amplitudes, a high packing density of fibres can be operated with little membrane fouling, which indicated that the secondary flow generated could overcome the strong permeate flux competition within the bundle under vibrations. Finally, vibration relaxation was tested experimentally in half-on/off switching mode with the energy reduction due directly to the 50% stoppage. The results showed that a short relaxation time interval was generally more favourable for fouling reduction.
Subject
DRNTU::Engineering::Environmental engineering::Water treatment
Type
Journal Article
Series/Journal Title
Journal of membrane science
Rights
© 2013 Elsevier B.V. This is the author created version of a work that has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication by Journal of membrane science, Elsevier B.V. It incorporates referee’s comments but changes resulting from the publishing process, such as copyediting, structural formatting, may not be reflected in this document. The published version is available at: [DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2013.12.042].
Collections
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2013.12.042
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