Enhancement of membrane permeability by gas-sparging in submerged hollow fibre ultrafiltration of macromolecular solutions: Role of module design

Permeability in membrane filtration processes suffers from two major limiting factors: concentration polarization and membrane fouling. Gas-sparging, which involves bubbling of a gas in close proximity of a membrane, is known to minimise both of these. Gas-sparged membrane filtration is carried out either by pressurising a gas-sparged feed side or by using suction to draw the permeate through a membrane from the un-pressurised, gas-sparged feed …