Ultrafiltration Membrane Filter for Industrial Water Treatment Solutions

Ultrafiltration Membrane Filter for Industrial Water Treatment Solutions

Ultrafiltration membrane filter is the core porous separation medium that realizes physical impurity interception in modern industrial water treatment systems. As a precision industrial liquid filter with graded pore structure, this core filter component supports assembly with Industrial Skid Mounted Ultrafiltration Equipment, anti-fouling Tubular Ultrafiltration Membrane, finished Integrated Ultrafiltration Water Purification Equipment and standard Ultrafiltration machine to build complete water purification and wastewater recycling systems for diverse industrial working conditions. This paper comprehensively analyzes structural characteristics, mass transfer separation mechanism, standardized technical indicators, strict production quality control and global industrial application scenarios of ultrafiltration membrane filter, helping overseas buyers select matched membrane materials and supporting complete ultrafiltration equipment according to raw water pollution degree and target water quality requirements.

1. Product Introduction

Ultrafiltration membrane filter is the core consumable component of all ultrafiltration water treatment equipment, relying on microporous interception to remove colloids, suspended solids, bacteria, viruses and macromolecular organic pollutants from water fluid while retaining beneficial mineral components in water. According to structural morphology, our mainstream ultrafiltration membrane filter is divided into hollow fiber membrane filter and tubular ultrafiltration membrane filter, which are installed into different finished ultrafiltration devices to cope with clean water pretreatment and high-fouling wastewater treatment respectively.

For conventional factory raw water purification, domestic water preparation and low-concentration sewage treatment, hollow fiber ultrafiltration membrane filter is loaded inside Integrated Ultrafiltration Water Purification Equipment and conventional Ultrafiltration machine. It features ultra-large specific surface area per unit volume, compact layout and lower overall system cost, becoming the most widely used filter element for general water treatment projects. When facing harsh working conditions such as oily wastewater, electroplating wastewater, coating wastewater and high suspended solid waste liquid that are easy to cause membrane blockage, we adopt open runner Tubular Ultrafiltration Membrane as the main ultrafiltration membrane filter. The thick tubular channel allows large particulate dirt to be discharged with concentrated water smoothly, and supports physical sponge ball online cleaning to reduce irreversible membrane fouling.

Large-scale centralized wastewater treatment stations and industrial park overall water treatment projects usually adopt modular assembled Industrial Skid Mounted Ultrafiltration Equipment. Multiple groups of ultrafiltration membrane filter modules are arranged in parallel on the stainless steel skid frame, matched with circulating pumps, automatic backwash pipelines and PLC control cabinets to realize large-flow continuous water treatment. All ultrafiltration membrane filters produced by LEFILTER adopt modified PVDF as the base material by default, with outstanding chemical corrosion resistance, oxidation resistance and mechanical tensile strength. The asymmetric membrane pore structure effectively improves pollutant interception precision and slows down the deposition speed of pollutants on the membrane surface during long-term operation.

As the core filtering consumable determining effluent quality and system operation stability, the service life and performance of ultrafiltration membrane filter directly affect the operating cost of the whole set of ultrafiltration equipment. Reasonable type selection and standardized daily cleaning maintenance can maximize the service cycle of membrane filter elements and reduce the frequency of spare parts replacement for enterprises.

2. Working Principle

The filtration behavior of ultrafiltration membrane filter belongs to pressure-driven cross-flow sieving separation, which is the most essential working logic of membrane filtration technology. After the raw water is pressurized by the system feed pump to the rated operating pressure of 1.0–4.0 bar, the water body flows tangentially along the surface or inner wall of the ultrafiltration membrane filter at a stable flow velocity.

Water molecules, dissolved inorganic salts and small molecular soluble substances pass through the tiny selective pores of the membrane filter layer under pressure to form qualified clear permeate water, which is collected and exported to the clean water storage tank. Pollutants with particle size larger than the membrane molecular weight cutoff are physically trapped on the membrane surface; the high-speed cross-flow of raw water will continuously scour the membrane surface, take away most intercepted dirt with concentrated water, and avoid the rapid formation of dense filter cake to block membrane pores.

Two maintenance modes are matched for ultrafiltration membrane filter to maintain long-term stable flux output. The first is automatic backwashing: the clean water produced by the equipment reversely permeates the membrane filter to peel off loose surface pollutants, and the action program is solidified in the control system to run automatically at regular intervals without manual operation. The second is periodic CIP chemical cleaning: acid cleaning agent removes inorganic scale and metal sediment attached to the membrane filter, and alkaline cleaning agent decomposes organic pollutants and microbial biofilm. Tubular ultrafiltration membrane filter can add physical sponge ball scrubbing as an auxiliary cleaning method to further enhance the cleaning effect for heavily polluted wastewater.

3. Technical Parameters 

3.1 Core Parameters of Ultrafiltration Membrane Filter

1. Main raw material: Modified PVDF (standard); optional PES for food & pharmaceutical sanitary scenes

2. Optional MWCO: 30 kDa, 50 kDa, 100 kDa (most common specifications)

3. Effective membrane pore size: 0.01 μm ~ 0.1 μm

4. Continuous operating temperature range: 5℃ ~ 45℃

5. pH adaptability: Continuous operation pH 2–11; chemical cleaning tolerance pH 1–13

6. Standard design flux range: 20–85 LMH (adjusted by water inlet pollution load)

3.2 Matching System Operating Index

1. Optimal operating pressure for membrane filter operation: 1.5–3.0 bar

2. Overall water recovery rate of matched ultrafiltration system: 82%–93%

3. Effluent turbidity after membrane filtration: Steadily less than 0.1 NTU

4. Bacteria & coliform interception rate: ≥99.99%

5. Outlet water SDI value: ≤3, meeting pretreatment standard of reverse osmosis equipment

3.3 Physical Specification Parameters

1. Hollow fiber membrane module area: 40–80 ㎡ per single module

2. Tubular membrane inner diameter: 8 mm / 10 mm / 12 mm conventional sizes

3. Membrane fiber tensile strength: Resist backwash pressure impact without fracture

4. Product Quality & Manufacturing Standards

Every batch of LEFILTER ultrafiltration membrane filter is produced by precise phase inversion extrusion process. The production workshop strictly controls polymer solution concentration, coagulation bath temperature and extrusion speed to ensure uniform pore size distribution of each membrane filter, avoiding local oversized pores leading to pollutant leakage and unqualified effluent.

Each finished ultrafiltration membrane filter module must pass 100% bubble point integrity test before leaving the factory to screen out defective products such as fiber breakage, membrane wall pinholes and sealing leakage, so as to guarantee the absolute barrier property of the membrane filter. When assembling membrane filters into various ultrafiltration equipment, food-grade fluororubber sealing parts are used for all connection positions to prevent raw water from channeling into the produced water side through gaps.

All our ultrafiltration membrane filter products have passed ISO9001 quality system certification, CE safety certification and NSF61 drinking water material certification. Under standardized operation and regular cleaning maintenance, the service life of PVDF ultrafiltration membrane filter can reach 5–8 years for hollow fiber type and 6–8 years for tubular type, effectively reducing the long-term spare parts procurement cost for enterprise users. Each batch of membrane filters is attached with independent quality inspection report to trace production batches and technical indicators.

5. Application Fields

Supported by different structural forms of ultrafiltration membrane filter, the matched complete ultrafiltration equipment is widely applied in multiple industrial and municipal fields:

1. Pure water pretreatment for manufacturing industry: Remove colloids and microorganisms to protect downstream reverse osmosis membranes and extend RO service life

2. Industrial wastewater recycling: Tertiary advanced treatment of factory biochemical wastewater for workshop flushing, cooling water replenishment and green irrigation

3. Municipal surface water purification: Purify river water, lake water to produce factory self-supplied production water and domestic water

4. Food & beverage processing water: Purify brewing, dairy and fruit juice production water to remove bacteria while retaining natural nutrients

5. Pharmaceutical purified water preparation: Remove pyrogen and endotoxin as core filtering medium for pharmaceutical production water system

6. Electroplating, printing and dyeing, petrochemical wastewater treatment: Tubular ultrafiltration membrane filter treats oily and high-solids wastewater to realize pollutant separation and water reuse

FAQ 

Q1: What is the essential difference between hollow fiber and tubular ultrafiltration membrane filter?

A: Hollow fiber membrane filter has large membrane area and low cost, suitable for clean raw water and general low-pollution sewage; tubular membrane filter has open flow channel, strong anti-blocking ability and supports physical cleaning, specially used for oily wastewater and high suspended solids wastewater treatment.

Q2: Can ultrafiltration membrane filter remove dissolved salt substances and reduce water TDS value?

A: Ultrafiltration membrane filter only intercepts particulate pollutants and microorganisms, dissolved salt ions can freely pass through membrane pores. If desalination treatment is needed, the membrane filter must be used as pretreatment matched with reverse osmosis membrane system.

Q3: How often does ultrafiltration membrane filter need chemical cleaning during normal use?

A: Automatic backwash runs every 15–60 minutes daily without chemicals; regular chemical CIP cleaning is carried out every 2–6 months according to the pollution degree of inlet water to eliminate organic biofilm and inorganic scale.

Q4: What factors will shorten the service life of ultrafiltration membrane filter seriously?

A: Long-term uncleaned membrane surface fouling, excessive operating pressure, over-temperature water inflow and strong acid-base liquid directly contacting the membrane material will cause irreversible damage and shorten the service life of the membrane filter.

Q5: Can old ultrafiltration equipment directly replace the original membrane filter with tubular ultrafiltration membrane filter?

A: Direct replacement is not recommended. Tubular membrane filter needs supporting circulating pipeline and sponge ball cleaning components. It is better to select the matched complete equipment according to actual water volume parameters.

Q6: Why is modified PVDF the mainstream material for ultrafiltration membrane filter?

A: PVDF material has excellent acid and alkali resistance, oxidation resistance, mechanical strength and anti-fouling performance, adapts to most industrial water quality environments, and has stable performance after repeated chemical cleaning, which is far superior to PP and PES materials in harsh working conditions.

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