Impact of algae type and cell condition on fouling and cleanability of capillary ultrafiltration membranes

Ultrafiltration membranes have a great potential to retain different types of algae with high efficiency.
Nevertheless, the membrane fouling propensity, the cleanability, and consequently, the membrane
lifespan are revealed to be significantly influenced by the algae type, cell condition and the operating
parameters. Therefore, the fouling mechanisms of commercial ultrafiltration (UF) capillary
membranes during dead-end filtration of various fresh water and marine algae types, in different cell
condition, i.e., “intact” or “lysed”, are analyzed. Moreover, the potential of chemical enhanced
backwashing approach and the permeability recovery are investigated. According to the results, the
membranes showed different fouling behavior depending on the algae cell condition, which was also
interestingly limited to the algae type. Furthermore, the fouled membranes by marine algae types
exhibited better cleanability than those fouled by fresh water algae types. The differences in the
fouling mechanisms and the cleanability were successfully correlated to the algae’s characteristics that
were found to differ, for the same algae type, according to the cell condition.