Study of unsteady-state flux prediction in cross-flow microfiltration

Based on the assumption that the variation rate of average thickness of the deposition layer is proportional to the difference in the masses of solutes brought to the membrane surface by the bulk fluid flow and the solutes removed from the membrane surface by the shear rate of the tangential flow, a simple convective model for unsteady-state transient flux prediction in cross-flow microfiltration has been developed. The correlation coefficient between the model parameter B and operating conditions was used to analyze the influence of operating conditions on the model parameter B. The experiment was carried out with yeast suspension under different operating conditions in 0.1 μm PVDF hollow-fiber module with 0.3 m2 filtration area, and the model was validated with experimental data. The analytical result showed that the model parameter B was independent of operating conditions when taking the significance level α = 0.05, and when the mean value of the model parameter B under different operating conditions as a constant was put into the model, the result showed that the model prediction is in accordance with the experimental observation.