| Summary: | Membrane process efficiency in the dairy industry is impaired by the formation of deposits during filtration processes. This work describes cleaning procedures for ceramic tubular membrane (50 nm) fouled with whey proteins. Also, mathematical modelling was performed to obtain models which allow deeper insight into the mechanisms involved during cleaning procedures. The caustic solutions (0.2%w/w, 0.4%w/w and 1.0%w/w NaOH) and the mixture of two commercial detergents (0.8%w/w P3-ultrasil 69+0.5% w/w P3-ultrasil 67 and 1.2% P3-ultrasil 69+0.75 P3-ultrasil 67) were used as chemical cleaning agents. The results showed that the best flux recovery was achieved with 0.4%w/w NaOH solution. After analyzing the experimental data, five parameter and six parameter kinetic models were suggested for alkali and detergent cleaning, respectively. The changes of total and specific resistances, as well as the change of the effective pore diameter and deposit thickness during cleaning are estimated by applying these models.
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