Concentration by Membrane Ultrafiltration of a Shear-Thinning Fluid

Abstract

Many commercial membrane processes involve fluids whose rheological properties are non-Newtonian. However, very little has been published on ultrafiltration of non-Newtonian fluids. The aim of this work is to show some experimental results concerning the concentration by membrane ultrafiltration of fluids whose viscosity is high and shear-thinning. Experiments were performed with xanthan solutions as model shear-thinning fluids. The variations of permeate flux with respect to the operating parameters show the unusual effects of some of these parameters. It is shown that when the feed solution in an ultrafiltration process has shear-thinning properties, those properties have an enormous influence in determining the operation efficiency.