Cake resistance and force balance mechanism in the crossflow microfiltration of lactalbumin particles

The resistance in series and force balance model has been extended to inclu de the wide size distribution and compressibility of the feed particles. Th e model successfully explained the experimental results obtained during cro ssflow microfiltration (CFMF) of lactalbumin particles under varying operat ing, feed and membrane conditions. The possibility of applying the develope d force balance model to obtain a desired size separation without changing the membrane pore size was successfully demonstrated. There is scope to app ly the models to other widely size distributed compressible particles, e.g. particles of biological origin. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.