The dead end ultrafiltration of dispersions of active carbon in water was s
tudied. High flux of the permeate and effective purification were goals of
the studies. Cyclical flow of the feed (cycling) was found to be the best c
ondition for good purification. During the purification of the membrane, an
air/water dispersion was injected into the hollow fiber membrane (air spar
ging) to improve the cleaning effect. A Simplex optimization of significant
parameters was carried out. The behavior of pressure drop and module entra
nce pressure permitted the classification of the values into two groups. A
different build-up of the cake of these groups during the filtration is pos
sible.