Optimization of Air Backwash Frequency during the Ultrafiltration of Seawater

The main objective of this paper is to study the effect of new air backwash on dead-end ultrafiltration of seawater with a pilot at semi-industrial scale (20 m(3)/day). To control membrane fouling, two different backwashes were used to clean the membrane: classical backwash (CB) and new air backwash (AB) that consists of injecting air into the membrane module before a classical backwash. To evaluate the efficiency of AB and CB, a resistance in series model was used to calculate each resistance: membrane (R(m)), reversible (R(rev)) and irreversible (R(irr)). The variation of the seawater quality was considered by integrating the turbidity variation versus time. The results indicate clearly that AB was more performant than CB and frequency of AB/CB cycles was important to control membrane fouling. In this study, frequencies of 1/5 and 1/3 appear more efficient than 1/7 and 1/9. In addition, the operation conditions (flux and time of filtration) had an important role in maintaining membrane performance—whatever the variation of the seawater quality.