Enhanced filtration using flat membranes and standing vortex waves

The performance of membrane filters is limited by concentration polarisation and membrane fouling. High shear rates reduce these effects but can damage delicate cells and proteins in biological fluids. Secondary flows to promote fluid mixing, and hence enhance filtration, can be highly effective, but usually carry the penalty of complexity. Oscillatory flow over furrowed or dimpled membrane surfaces (vortex mixing) has been shown to be very efficient in the microfiltration and oxygenation of blood, but carries the added complexity of oscillatory flow and the need to thermoform the membranes. To allow the use of asymmetric or rigid membranes, a new form of vortex mixing has been studied, in which the membranes are flat and form parallel channels. Feed flow is oscillatory and passes back-and-forth across ladder-like flow deflectors to generate standing vortex waves. Flow visualisation studies and numerical calculations of standing vortex waves (SVW) were undertaken to help optimise flow parameters and flow deflector geometry. Flat plate membrane ultrafilters were built and evaluated for different geometries of flow deflector, using solutions of bovine serum albumin (BSA) as the test fluid. Very high filtration rates were measured with BSA concentrations ranging from 1 to 24%. A SVW ultrafilter was compared with a Millipore Pellicon ultrafilter using BSA as the test fluid. Filtration flux was similar at low concentrations of BSA, but was greater by a factor of 4.5 in the SVW device at high concentrations of BSA.