CHE338/CE8331, Membrane Technology 1

Assignment #1
Due Date: February 09, 4 PM

Problem 1. (25 points) Calculate the porosity and water flux through a track-etch membrane of the following
two cases with a membrane thickness of 1 m at 20oC.

a) Pore diameter = 1 um and a number of the pores = 1.3 x107/cm2

b) Pore diameter = 0.2 um and a number of the pores = 3x108/cm2

Problem 2. (25 points) A polyethylene member of 20% porosity, with pore diameter = 0.3 um and thickness
= 1 um, is used to pass water at 70oC. The pressure drop across the membrane is 375 kPa and the average
tortuosity of the membrane is 1.3. Determine the water volume flux per day.

Problem 3. (50 points) Microfiltration of Skim Milk

You have a two-stage DEF (dead-end flow) membrane (cellulose-acetate) microfiltration for diluted skim milk
with a protein concentration of 4.3 g/L. For the first stage operation, you keep the permeate constant at 10
ml/min up to a pressure drop of 25 psi, which is followed by the second stage operation at this upper-limit
pressure, down to a permeate of 5 ml/min. Other parameters are specified in the following table.
Make assumptions if necessary.

Rm Am Dp Initial pressure
drop at t=0
1.43x1010 m-1 3.78x1012 m/kg 0.00173 cm2 1 cP 0.45 um 0.3 psi
The subscripts m and p indicate membrane and pore respectively.

Plot the permeate flux and accumulated permeate volume with respect to a function of operation time.