Investigation of Membrane Fouling in Vacuum Membrane Distillation (VMD) Using Blocking Filtration Laws

VMD is one of the desalination technologies used for drinking water purification because of it higher permeate flux and lower energy consumption, and it uses low grade energy for operation. However, there are some critical problems related to VMD, one of which is membrane fouling. In the present study, the fouling phenomenon in VMD is investigated using constant pressure-blocking filtration laws. The results of constant pressure-blocking filtration law indicated that the permeate flux was initially unaffected by the cake layer, but with the passage of time as the pores began to constrict, a formation of a relatively thick cake layer was observed, which resulted in the decrease of permeate flux.

High-permeability vacuum membrane distillation utilizing mechanically compressed carbon nanotube membranes

High-permeable vacuum membrane distillation by applying vertically aligned carbon nanotube for the first time.

Applications of Ultrafiltration, Reverse Osmosis, Nanofiltration, and Microfiltration in Dairy and Food Industry

Food industry is the place to convert raw edible materials to processed foods. Processing foods involves standardization, removal of unnecessary components, addition of essential components, thermal treatments etc. Membrane processes help enhancing the food primely in terms of keeping quality, nutritional value, component recovery and by-products utilization. Feed is given to the membrane system while retentate and permeate are obtained. Components of food can be separated according to size, charge and other characteristics using various membrane processes. The major ones are Ultrafiltration, Reverse Osmosis, Nanofiltration and Microfiltration which are done either single or in combination of more than one process and also in addition with processes such as electrodialysis and vacuum membrane distillation. These processes act as step(s) in the operating procedure of a food or as an alternative method to process the same food with better quality.