Permeate Quality of Ultrafiltration Process

Abstract

A mathematical model for calculating the efficiency of the ultrafiltration process in removing nonspherical organic solutes from fishery processing wastewaters is presented. The model relating membrane removal efficiency to membrane pore size originally proposed for spherical organic solutes has been modified for nonspherical macromolecular solutes. The concept of equivalent molecular weight was used to treat nonspherical solutes as spherical solutes. The mathematical model assumes that nonspherical organic solutes having a given average molecular weight can be assumed to consist of spherical molecules of different effective molecular weights. Magnitudes of the effective molecular weights represent the difficulty of the solutes to pass through the membrane pore and, hence, the difficulty of removing them. A Gaussian normal pattern is assumed for the distribution of the effective molecular weights. The validity of the effective molecular weight concept is verified by close fits of the calculated results to laboratory data.