NANOFILTRATION OF FERMENTATION SOLUTIONS - UNFAVOURABLE PHENOMENA AND MEMBRANE CLEANING

The intensity of unfavourable phenomena occurring in the nanofiltration process of fermentation solutions, and the possibility of cleaning the membranes after this process were studied. The experiment was carried out using a tubular module equipped with the AFC-30 membrane. The filtration process was carried out at a transmembrane pressure of 2.0 MPa, linear velocity of the feed of 3.4 m/s and the temperature of the feed equal to 20 degrees C. Hydraulic performance of the membrane was tested both during the filtration of model and real solutions. The conditions for efficient cleaning of fouled surfaces of the membranes by using different chemical reagents were determined. It was also attempted to rinse the membrane with clean water. A preliminary study was performed to determine the transport and separation characteristics of the AFC-30 membrane for deionized water and salt solutions of NaCl and MgSO4 representing mono- and divalent ions, respectively. In this case, the membrane was tested under varying transmembrane pressure in the range of 1.0 to 2.0 MPa.