THE CLEANING OF ULTRAFILTRATION MEMBRANES FOULED BY PROTEIN

The relationship between membrane fouling and cleaning was investigate d in terms of flow conditions, transmembrane pressures, pH, membrane p roperties, and cleaning agents using a stirred batch cell and aqueous albumin solution. Fouling was less at the pH extremes than at the isoe lectric point for both retentive and partially permeable membranes. Me mbranes with partial permeability showed a greater tendency for foulin g and were less responsive to cleaning than retentive membranes. The r esults in the stirred cell were shown to be similar to those for a cro ssflow module under similar operating conditions.