YEAST-CELL MICROFILTRATION - FLUX ENHANCEMENT IN BAFFLED AND PULSATILE FLOW SYSTEMS

The filtration performance of yeast cell harvesting was greatly improv ed by using an oscillatory flow mixing technique in both tubular and f lat sheet membrane systems; flux increases of several fold were achiev ed. The effects of various operating parameters such as frequency, amp litude and ratio of net forward flow rate to oscillatory flow rate wer e investigated. A simple alternative to the dual head pump, which invo lved the use of solenoid valves for producing flow reversal, was devel oped. The flux was significantly increased using this new operating mo de. As the only increase of power consumption was from inertia loss du e to change of flow direction the additional power consumption is mini mal.