CCWI2017: F152 'Multimechanism Fouling Model for Micro and Ultrafiltration Membranes for Wastewater Treatment'

Fouling is a term describing progressive reduction of membrane permeability during filtration of solutes and suspensions. The problem with fouling lies in its complexity and our lack of under- standing of the science behind it. In wastewater treatment applications the problem is addition- ally magnified by polydispersity of wastewater suspensions. For these reasons fouling models in wastewater treatment applications are usually black-box or grey-box. Theoretical/classical fouling models are available but are applied predominantly to monodisperse suspensions where one fouling mechanism dominates and hence, only one classical fouling equation suffices to describe the filtration process. In wastewater applications we need to solve several equations simultaneously in order to be able to predict different stages of the filtration process. This paper presents such a model which combines three classical fouling mechanisms: blocking, constriction and cake growth. The paper shows successful calibration results but also indicates parameter identifiability issues.