Performance of partially permeable microfiltration membranes under low fouling conditions

Controlling the onset of fouling and concentration polarization is critical in many membrane operations, particularly in the bioseparation area. By using stepping and constant flux experiments, the fouling threshold or `incipient fouling' region was studied for various microfiltration membranes, pH's, and bulk concentrations using bovine serum albumin. Experiments were conducted to try to decouple effects such are porosity and pore size on incipient fouling by using a combination of tracked etched and polyvinylidene difluoride membranes. Changes in protein transmission and wall concentrations near the fouling threshold were also compared across these membranes. While porosity determined the fouling rate after the exceeding the fouling threshold, pore size appear to be an dominant factor in determining level of the fouling threshold itself. The effect of pH also supports the hypothesis that the rejections are initially dominated by membrane–solute interactions but are subsequently modified by protein adsorption to the surface as the wall concentration increases. Repulsive forces between membrane and solute allow greater rejection (greater wall concentration) to be maintained without fouling but did not increase the critical flux substantially. Attractive electrostatic forces allow greater passage of solute (lower wall concentration), but the protein adsorption soon dominated and the onset of fouling occurred much more quickly. Using a conventional concentration polarization model, analysis of the results indicates that the onset of fouling is occurring at a relatively low wall concentrations.