Water Science & Technology: Water Supply Vol 7 No 4 pp 95–101 © IWA Publishing 2007 doi:10.2166/ws.2007.137

Effect of axial variation of flux on filtration characteristics of hollow fiber membrane for drinking water treatment

Hyun-je Oh, June-Seok Choi, Byong-Bo Choi, Sangho Lee and Tae-Mun Hwang

Understanding the fouling phenomena in submerged membrane systems is challenging because the efficiency of hollow fiber membrane highly depends on the dimensions of the fibers as well as filtration conditions. Thus, modeling filtration behavior of hollow fibers is important for improving the performance of hollow fiber system. In this work, a theoretical model based on critical flux concept was developed to simulate filtration resistance and axial pressure drop along the fiber in drinking water treatment.

The application of a model for experimental data indicated that the model matches the experiments quite well. Thus, simulation of membrane system was carried out under various conditions using the parameters from the model fit. The axial distribution of pressure and flux affect the filtration characteristics of hollow fiber membranes. The effect of model parameters (specific cake resistance and critical flux) and module geometry were theoretically also investigated using the model.

Keywords: Drinking water; fouling; hollow fiber; modeling; submerged microfiltration

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