KAGAKU KOGAKU RONBUNSHU, Vol.28, No.2, 143-149, 2002
Scale-up law of vibrating membrane separation system
The purpose of this study is to specify the scale-up factor and to establish a scale-up method for the vibrating membrane separation system. The permeate flux of latex solution was measured using both a small-scale model system (after here S-system) and an industrial-scale system (after here I-system). The results showed that the permeate flux in the S-system was larger than that in the I-system. The difference was considered to be caused by two reasons. The first is that the shear rate given to the, fluid near the membrane surface of the S-system was bigger than that of the I-system because the vibrating frequency of the S-system was higher than that of the I-system. The other is that the I-system used multi-layered membranes of lauger radius than the S-system, while the S-system used only a single membrane. Therefore, the concentration in the membrane module of the I-system varied in the flow direction, and this results in the smaller averaged permeate flux in the I-system. Based on these facts, a scale-up method for predicting the permeate flux in the I-systern from that in the S-system was proposed. The predictions of the permeate flux by the method were well consistent with the measurements within an error of 5%. Furthermore it was found that it is possible to use the shear rate applied in the fluid near the membrane surface as a scale-up factor of the vibrating membrane separation system.