Striping phenomenon during cross-flow microfiltration of oil-in-water emulsions

The striping phenomenon in membrane filtration, whereby the foulants deposit as regular streaks rather than a more uniform layer, was first observed more than 30 years ago (Jonsson, 1987), but the understanding has remained limited to a few subsequent studies (Henriksen and Hassager, 1993; Larsen, 1991; Li et al., 2016; Tanudjaja et al., 2017; Tarabara et al., 2002). In view of the potential practical implications of the stripes in terms of membrane fouling and fouling mitigation, this study was targeted at an in-depth characterization of the stripes. The direct observation through the membrane (DOTM) technique was employed to observe the conditions when the stripes formed by oil emulsions stabilized by three Tween surfactants at a lower cross-flow velocity, and higher oil concentrations and permeate fluxes. The results indicate that (i) other than hydrodynamic factors (e.g., permeate drag, tangential shear), foulant-membrane and foulant-foulant interactions played a role in stripe formation or disappearance, as evident in the formation of stripes only by the oil emulsion stabilized by the Tween surfactants and the effect of pH; (ii) stripes made up of oil droplets appeared to be easier to remove than the more uniform layer of oil droplets, as evident in the shorter time taken for the former to detach; and (iii) among the three Tween surfactants, the striping characteristics investigated were largely similar, except for the time taken for the deposits to detach. These are expected to have implications for fouling control and mitigation.