Research on flux decline in nanofiltration of lactic acid solutions with ZRIV/PAA membranes application

The efficiency of lactic acid solutions nanofiltration with dynamically formed zirconium (IV) hydrous oxide polyacrylate (ZrIV/PAA) membranes application were considered in this paper. The results of investigations on flux decline in nanofiltration of lactic acid solutions under conditions resulting in low and high lactic acid rejection are reported. In the long term experimental research on pressure driven membrane processes the main reason of permeate flux reduction is an accumulation of concentration polarization and fouling effects. The experimental permeate flux versus time curves were analyzed in the frame of resistance-in-series model with the aim to develop the characteristic fouling and concentration polarization resistances. The analysis of experimental data and results of calculations showed that both: concentration polarization and fouling phenomena in investigated system depend on hydrodynamic conditions and properties of filtered solutions and (ZrIV/PAA) membrane.