Vortex Generation reducing membrane-filtration fouling

Fil Max Inc. (Brea, Calif.; [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ) exhibited a new application for its FMXvortex-generating, membrane filtration technology - treating wastewater from a biogas plant. FMX consists of a stack of membrane filters with a vortex-generating blade sandwiched between the membranes. The blade - jointly developed by the Korean Institute of Machinery and Materials (Daejeon; [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ) and Fil Max-is spun by a variable- speed drive creating a swirling pattern known as Karman vortices, which generate a strong turbulence with minimum energy.

This turbulence dislodges foulants from the membrane surface, enabling the foulants to be carried away by the feed stream (diagram, top). In contrast, conventional membrane which rely on a cross flow to remove the boundary layer built up by foulants, are less efficient because the shear force is often weakest near the membrane surface (diagram, bottom). Since then, the technology has found applications in the oil-and-energy, chemical and environmental industries. Units are available with membrane areas of 10 to 100 m2, and the modular design enables stacking as many membranes as needed to meet the required capacity.

Kármán vortex