Modeling, simulation, and characterization of spinning basket membrane module in recovery of proteins from synthetic wastewater

TLDR: In this article, the authors presented the modeling, simulation, and characterization studies of a dynamic shear-enhanced (DSE) filtration system with an inbuilt cleaning facility.

Abstract: Membrane-based low-cost recovery of nutritional and therapeutic proteins from wastewater is regarded as a leap towards sustainability. However, membranes are heavily fouled by proteins, and thus, frequent chemical or hydrodynamic cleaning is needed even in the advanced dynamic shear-enhanced (DSE) filtration devices. This article presents the modeling, simulation, and characterization studies of a DSE system, namely the ‘Spinning Basket membrane’ (SBM) module with an inbuilt cleaning facility. The device has been established to be specifically suitable for the recovery of proteins from synthetic wastewater. It can perpetually regenerate the flux with its simple and, moreover, online cleaning facility. A two-parameter transient model, purely based on an analytical approach, has been developed to simulate the device. Moderately low deviation (±12 %) of the simulated flux from the corresponding experimental data obtained from ultrafiltration of synthetic wastewater unambiguously validates the proposed model. The present modeling strategy demonstrates how a DSE filtration system with highly complex modes of mass and momentum transfer could be easily simulated.