Scaling up pulsatile filtration flow methods to a pilot apparatus equipped with mineral membranes

This paper addresses the problem of extrapolating the technique used for filtration enhancement by superimposing pressure and flow pulsations to a pilot model of an actual production unit equipped with 14 Carbosep mineral membranes. The experimental results obtained with raw apple juice show that the maximum permeate flux enhancement is obtained at a frequency of 1 Hz and a pulsed volume of 200 ml which is significantly less than the internal volume of the membranes. The flux enhancement is a linear function of the ratio of pulsatile to steady flow and can reach up to 140% when the circuit settings are unchanged. However, when the time-averaged mean transmembrane pressure is conserved the flux enhancement is much smaller and barely exceeds 25%.