An integrity sensor for assessing the performance of low pressure membrane modules in the water industry
There is a need for a low cost, sensitive, on-line sensor to assess the integrity of membrane modules used in the water industry for water treatment, membrane bioreactors and for pre-treatment prior to using nanofiltration or reverse osmosis. A sensor addressing this need is described whose operat...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/101234 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/11009 |
| Summary: | There is a need for a low cost, sensitive, on-line sensor to assess the integrity of membrane modules used in
the water industry for water treatment, membrane bioreactors and for pre-treatment prior to using
nanofiltration or reverse osmosis. A sensor addressing this need is described whose operating principle is
based on measuring the differential pressure across a membrane that intercepts a portion of the permeate
from the pre-treatment module(s) relative to the differential pressure across a valve. The latter can be
adjusted to maximize the sensitivity of the instrument. A dimensionless metric based on the differential
pressures is defined and corroborated with the Silt Density Index. The sensitivity of this Integrity Sensor is
demonstrated by its response to cutting one fiber in a UF pre-treatment module that contains 1500 hollow
fibers. |
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