Application of membrane technology for water treatment： Ultrasound-associated cleaning of fouled microfiltration membranes

The use of membranes is a widely employed, versatile, and effective separation process. One of the limiting aspects in applying microfiltration （MF） for wastewater treatment is that of problems with membrane fouling and consequent flux reduction. Membrane fouling occurs by the irreversible deposition of retained particles, colloids, macromolecules, salts, etc. at the membrane surface and/or inside the membrane. The predominant fouling mechanisms observed with MF membranes are classified as three categories： the build-up of a cake layer on the membrane surface, blocking of membrane pores, and adsorption of fouling material on the membrane surface or in the pore walls. Although many techniques have been developed to overcome fouling, studies on membrane cleaning still seem to be insufficient for practical membrane filtration systems. Current membrane cleaning technologies include hydraulic, chemical, and mechanical methods. Ultrasound （US） has been widely used as a method of cleaning materials because of the cavitation phenomenon. In this study, US cleaning technique was applied to removing the fouling of polyvinglidenefluoride （PVDF） MF membrane, which was used to treat yeast cell and isolated soybean protein （ISP） solution, respectively. The US employed 40 kHz frequency and the output power of 1.43-2.85 W/cm^2. The evolution of the cleaning effect is followed by the measurements of the flux recovery rate （FRstat） and the cleaning time cycle. Results showed that the membrane property, which was fouled by yeast cell solution, could be recovered by water cleaning with US irradiation. And the cleaning time with the same FRstat decreased with the increase of US intensity.