Kvasny Prum. 2009; 55(5): 119-121 | DOI: 10.18832/kp2009011

Chemical cleaning of ceramic membranes used for stillage filtration.Peer-reviewed article

Kateřina LAPIŠOVÁ, Karel MELZOCH
Ústav kvasné chemie a bioinženýrství Vysoká škola chemicko-technologická v Praze

The main concern of this work was to find the effective membrane regeneration scheme to obtain the initial water flux of the ceramic membranes that were fouled by distillery stillage. The foulants include mainly polysaccharides, proteins, low molecular compounds and salts. The use of different cleaning strategies, temperatures, regeneration time and chemical agents with different concentrations (NaOH, H2O2, EDTA, HNO3), was realized with the aim of getting the biggest possible flux recovery. Two different cleaning strategies were experimented: inside the module by recirculation of cleaning solution or outside the module submersing the membranes in a solution of cleaning agent at initial high temperature. The effective cleaning agent was 4% sodium hydroxide solution at high temperature of 80 °C.The main concern of this work was to find the effective membrane regeneration scheme to obtain the initial water flux of the ceramic membranes that were fouled by distillery stillage. The foulants include mainly polysaccharides, proteins, low molecular compounds and salts. The use of different cleaning strategies, temperatures, regeneration time and chemical agents with different concentrations (NaOH, H2O2, EDTA, HNO3), was realized with the aim of getting the biggest possible flux recovery. Two different cleaning strategies were experimented: inside the module by recirculation of cleaning solution or outside the module submersing the membranes in a solution of cleaning agent at initial high temperature. The effective cleaning agent was 4% sodium hydroxide solution at high temperature of 80 °C.

Keywords: ceramic membranes, membrane regeneration, fouling, distillery stillage

Published: May 1, 2009 

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