Ultrafiltration

Ultrafiltration is one of the methods of liquid filtration. Ultrafiltration is also sometimes called microfiltration. With this filtration method, a mixture of substances is separated under the influence of a pressure difference that occurs when liquid droplets that have a difference in size pass through a porous partition. For this reason, drops whose size is larger than the pore size of the partition remain outside, and the remaining drops, whose size is smaller than the pore size, penetrate through the partition. In the first case, a permeate containing only small-sized molecules is obtained (resulting in ultrafiltration permeate), and in the second case, a concentrate is obtained.

Ultrafiltration is fundamentally different from electrodialysis and reverse osmosis. The concentration of the initial solution for ultrafiltration is of great importance: the higher the concentration, the more productive the ultrafiltration unit. The scope of application of this method based on the properties of substances is limited, and it is not applicable to some substances at all, while to others it is applied only in the presence of surface phenomena.

The main advantage of ultrafiltration is the high degree of concentration of solutions - the concentration of semi-permeable membranes reaches hundreds of thousands of kilograms per cubic meter. Also, the advantages of ultrafiltration are noiselessness and low water consumption for its implementation.