Industrial Water & Wastewater
Process, Treatment &
Recovery
Technologies
J&T Technologies
321 Keystone Blvd.
Pottstown, PA, 19464
Industrial Water & Wastewater Process,
Treatment & Recovery Technologies
How Does Ultrafiltration Work?
Ultrafiltration is a separation process using membranes with pore sizes in the range of 0.1 to 0.001 micron. Typically, ultrafiltration will remove high molecular-weight substances, colloidal materials, and organic and inorganic polymeric molecules. Low molecular-weight organics and ions such as sodium, calcium, magnesium chloride, and sulfate are not removed. Because only high-molecular weight species are removed, the osmotic pressure differential across the membrane surface is negligible.
Low applied pressures are therefore sufficient to achieve high flux rates from an ultrafiltration membrane. Flux of a membrane is defined as the amount of permeate produced per unit area of membrane surface per unit time. Generally flux is expressed as gallons per square foot per day (GFD) or as cubic meters per square meters per day.
Ultrafiltration technology has a high removal cabability for bacteria and most viruses, colloids and silt (SDI). The smaller the nominal pore size, the higher the removal cabability. Most materials that are used in UF are polymeric and are naturally hydrophobic. Common polymeric materials used in UF include: Polysulfone (PS), Polyethersulfone (PES), Polypropylene (PP), or Polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF). Although these materials can be blended with hydrophilic agents, they can reduce the membranes ability to be cleaned with high strength disinfectants such as hypochlorite that impacts removal of bacterial growth.
Tags: polymeric , ultrafiltration, micron
