Increasing the vibration frequency to mitigate reversible and irreversible membrane fouling using an axial vibration membrane in microalgae harvesting

• DOI: 10.1016/j.memsci.2017.01.039
• Publication Date: 2017-02-04T00:02:25Z
• Authors: Fangchao Zhao; Huaqiang Chu; Yalei Zhang; Shuhong Jiang; Zhenjiang Yu; Xuefei Zhou; Jianfu Zhao
• Keywords: Membrane Fouling; Filtration (mathematics)

Abstract During algae harvesting using membrane technology, membrane fouling caused by the deposition of algae cells and extracellular organic matter (EOM) poses a major challenge. In this study, axial vibration membrane (AVM) filtration was conducted at 0, 5 and 10 Hz. As the frequency increased, AVM could effectively reduce the reversible fouling caused by the deposition of algae cells on the membranes. With the increase of frequency from 0 to 10 Hz in the 2-h filtration experiments, the amount of algae deposited on the membranes sharply decreased from 8.64 to 0.03 g/m2. For the reversible EOM on the membranes, with increasing frequency, the protein and polysaccharide contents exhibited declining trends, and no humic-like material was observed. It was also found that both low-MW ( 200 kDa) EOM easily caused reversible membrane fouling. The irreversible EOM adhesion to the membrane consisted of protein, polysaccharide and humic-like material. With the increase of frequency the MW peak of irreversible EOM had a right shift tendency. At 0, 5 and 10 Hz, EOM with MW of 3.5, 4 and 5 kDa, respectively, was more easily adsorbed on the membranes and caused irreversible membrane fouling.