MACROSOLUTE-MICROSOLUTE SEPARATION BY ULTRA-FILTRATION - A REVIEW OF DIAFILTRATION PROCESSES AND APPLICATIONS

For two decades ultrafiltration (UF) has been recognized as a dewateri ng technique as well as a fractionation process. As a fractionation te chnique, UF has several advantages over other processes like solvent e xtraction, chromatography, etc. UF is applied in many different fields such as food processing, biotechnology, pulp and the paper industry w here it is used to carry out fractionation. In practice, UF fractionat ion can be fine-tuned for a specific task depending on the treatment r equired, the quantity of mixture to be processed, etc. This paper cove rs (1) a brief introduction to UF membrane selectivity; (2) a presenta tion of the different UF fractionation modes, a comparison of these mo des, and some thoughts about the optimization of them; and (3) a short description.of applications.