EFFECTS OF PERIODIC BACKFLUSHING WITH FILTRATE ON FILTRATION PERFORMANCE IN AN INTERNAL-FILTRATION BIOREACTOR

Periodic backflushing of tubular ceramic membrane filters with filtrat e was employed to alleviate membrane fouling in a bioreactor with inte rnal-filtration. As the model system, yeast fermentation was dealt wit h in this study. There existed optimum backflushing interval and time to give a maximum flux recovery. At 16 g/l of yeast cell concentration , the mean flux increased about 2.5 times by using such repeated opera tion cycles as consisted of 4.53 minutes for filtration, 4.5 seconds f or intermission, and 40 seconds for backflushing. Effects of aeration, agitation speed, and yeast cell concentration were also investigated.