High flux ultrafiltration membrane for drinking water production

The high flux ultrafiltration hollow fibre membrane (HFCA) for drinking water production was developed and the membrane performance was evaluated by long-term ultrafiltration testing with river water. The hollow fibre membrane was made of cellulose acetate (CA) and has a highly porous structure with a very thin dense layer on the internal surface of the membrane. The ultrafiltration flux of the HFCA membrane was compared with that of the conventional CA membrane without such a highly asymmetric structure. The flux for the HFCA membrane was almost twice as high as that for the conventional one. The performance of the conventional CA membrane was also compared with that of membranes with different materials, namely polyethersulfone (PES) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN). The result showed much higher flux for the CA membrane, indicating that the fouling can be effectively controlled by using the membrane with hydrophilic and negatively charged properties. It was shown that the high flux for the HFCA membrane was due to characteristics of both membrane material and porous membrane structure. The pilot plant testing was carried out to examine the performance in the long term operation, and confirmed the high performance of the HFCA membrane for the application of drinking water treatment.