Rinsing Conditions Optimization of the Polyacrylonitrile Membranes Fouled by Sodium Alginate Solution

Rinsing is one of the most common methods to effectively mitigate membrane contamination and it is essential to optimize the cleaning conditions. In this study, A sequence of rinsing experiments was carried out on polyacrylonitrile membranes contaminated with sodium alginate solution. A rinsing model was used to predict the instantaneous membrane flux. The results show that the model predictions show good agreement with the experimental data (R²≥0.9937). The membrane flux increases with increasing rinsing time, but unnecessarily extended rinsing time (>15 min) decreased membrane flux. The effect of temperature on membrane flux was more significant compared to rotational speed (97.7% (55°C)>91.2% (600 rpm), at 5 min of rinsing time). In addition, stirring speed and temperature played a significant role in k₁, k₂ and k₃. The optimum rinsing conditions could be obtained by the association of the rinsing model (Eq. (23.2)) and the regression equation (Eq. (23.3)) to predict the rinsing time for maximum membrane flux in rinsing process.