Abstract
The purpose of this work was to develop a standard analytical technique for determining solute concentrations in a retention characterization of sheet ultrafiltration (UF) membranes. Three cells of different shape and area were used. And two different UF membranes were evaluated with three polyethylene glycols (PEG) of different average molecular weights, specifically 7500, 20000, and 50000. The experiments were done under the following conditions : 10-20kPa of transmembrane pressure (TMP), 0.024-0.24m/s linear velocity (u), and 100-300mg/l feed concentration (C). The solutions with a single molecular weight solute were analyzed by a TOC analyzer, and a GPC analyzer was used for mixed molecular weight solutions.
It was observed that the shape of the cells did not influence either the molecular weight cut-off or the mass transfer coefficient as calculated by Leveque's equation.
