Chemical Engineering June 2022 - 16

New Logic
FIGURE 5 Using Vibratory Shear Enhanced Processing
(VSEP), New Logic developed a fouling-resistant
membrane filtration system that vibrates the membrane
using resonance, which creates high shear at
the membrane surface, improving fouling resistance
by preventing congregation of the salts at the membrane
surface
Toray Industries
costs of acquiring fresh water and
discharging blowdown as wastewater.
The approach combines
chemicals, equipment and service.
While many other systems face
continued fouling issues of the filter
media and membranes, decreasing
the total recovery rate of the system
and increasing water use, Kurita's
CTBR solution effectively removes
suspended solids in cooling water,
inhibiting fouling, decreasing water
use and maximizing the recovery
rate of tower blowdown for a more
reliable operation.
Also interested in reducing fouling
FIGURE 6. Toray achieved performance improvement
by precisely controlling the size of micro pores,
such as molecular gaps in RO membranes, and by
improving the structure of the folds on the surface
of separation membranes with its TBW-HR series of
ultralow-pressure RO membrane elements
DuPont Water Solutions
FIGURE 7. DuPont's FilmTec Prime RO membranes
for the treatment of brackish water in industrial
applications require up to 20% less energy while
improving permeate quality by up to 60%
ing its fourth-generation fouling-resistant
membrane technology, which
reduces the need for cleaning by as
much as 50% for wastewater reuse
applications for industries including
petrochemical, coal-to-chemical,
paper and pulp, microelectronics
and textiles.
Kurita is also working to reduce
fouling in cooling-tower water treatment,
helping reduce water use and
expenses, via its Cooling Tower Blow
Down Recovery System (CTBR). The
technology recovers a higher rate of
tower blowdown water, conditioning
it and returning it to the cooling tower
system, minimizing the operating
16
and striving for energy conservation,
Aqua Membranes (Albuquerque,
N.M.; www.aquamembranes.
com) has developed a new manufacturing
method for the production
of RO and UF membrane elements.
" Membranes require frequent cleaning
due to their construction, " says
CEO Craig Beckman. " The layers
separating the membrane where
fluid flows are separated by a net
material constructed of extruded
polypropylene. While that net creates
turbulence in the membrane
that is designed for the feed flow to
come through, it is also the part that
scales after separation has taken
place, necessitating cleaning. What
many people don't realize is that the
energy associated with cleaning the
membrane is a significant percentage
of the energy required to run it. "
He continues to say that Aqua
Membranes constructed a membrane
element using printed spacer
technology that does not include
the netting element, reducing fouling
and pressure drop, thus providing
energy savings. The Aqua
Membranes product features a customized
3D-printed pattern on the
membrane to reduce fouling and
wasted pressure (Figure 4). " We use
flat sheet membrane purchased from
a supplier as our printing substrate
and run it through our patented printing
process. We end up with brail-like
dot and line patterns on the membrane
surface. This pattern covers
only 2 to 3% of the membrane, but
it's enough to create the flow channels
and customize the flow through
the system, resisting fouling and providing
energy savings because less
cleaning is needed, " he says.
Dynamic membrane systems that
reduce fouling can also be an enabling
technology for many applications,
says Greg Johnson, CEO and
co-founder of New Logic Research
(Minden, Nev.; www.vsep.com).
" Conventional
spiral-wound membranes
have a very tight space between
the membranes and use high
laminar cross flow to pump liquid
through a filter at a high rate of speed
to create shear at the membrane
surface. But as the membrane allows
water to pass, the solids are left
behind and congregate at the membrane
surface, causing scaling and
fouling. This is known as concentration
polarization, " Johnson explains.
" Using our Vibratory Shear Enhanced
Processing (VSEP), we developed a
fouling-resistant membrane filtration
system that vibrates the membrane
using resonance, which creates high
shear at the membrane surface, improving
fouling resistance by preventing
congregation of the salts at
the membrane surface " (Figure 5).
This unique method has allowed
the use of membrane systems in
many viscous or other applications
where it may not have been possible
to use membranes or other separation
technologies in a cost-effective
way, notes Johnson. " Often in challenging
separations, our equipment
is the enabling technology that can
allow separations or purification that
would not otherwise be possible, "
he says. " While some of our applications
are in the chemical processing
or purification industry or the industrial
wastewater industry, we have a
lot of projects installed treating biogas
effluent. In these applications,
processors take organic material like
manure or food waste and digest
that in an anaerobic digester where
methane is extracted and sold as
a gas, but they are left with effluent
that must be treated and our membranes
can help with that. We also
treat leachate from landfills and help
other companies achieve zero- or
minimal-liquid discharge. "
Increased selectivity
" One of the biggest challenges in
membrane-separation technology
is to break through the trade-off
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JUNE 2022
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Chemical Engineering June 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering June 2022
