Tutorial 5

Please DO NOT plagiarize. Severe penalty for non-compliance.

Review- Filtration

1. (A) Brief the salient operation parameters for ultrafiltration with an example.
(B) How can the performance of the same can be characterized and tested?

2. The flow channels for an ultrafiltration (UF) system are tubes of 0.1 cm dia (Dh) and 100 cm long.
Determine the polarization modulus for a transmembrane flux of 45 L/m2hr if the system is
being operated at bulk stream velocity of 300 cm/sec.
Diffusivity of protein (A) in the solution (B) = 9×10-7 cm2 /s.
Viscosity of solution= 1.2 cP
Density of solution = 1.1 g/cm3
Mass transfer coefficient, k = DABSh/Dh
Sherwood number, Sh = 0.082Re 0.69 Sc0.33

3. A. Find the area of tangential flow filtration (TFF) system to be used to concentrate 10 L to 200
mL in 2.5 hrs? Assume average filtrate flux rate of 50 LMH.
B. We have 50 mL of sample with 0.5M NaCl. We need to reduce the salt conc below 0.05M and
then concentrate to 10 mL. Using a 50 cm2 TFF capsule of an appropriate cut size, how long will
it take you if the average filtrate flux rate is 40 LMH and 3 diafiltration volumes are required to
get the salt concentration below 0.05 M.

4. A Buchner funnel of diameter 8 cm was used for filtering a cell culture suspension (viscosity of
3.0 cP). The data in table below were obtained with a vacuum pressure of 600 mmHg applied to
the Buchner funnel. After the filtration, the cell solids on the filter was found to weigh 14.0
grams (dried). Find specific cake resistance and the medium resistance Rm. How long would it
take to obtain 10 kL of filtrate from this cell broth on a filter with a surface area of 10 m2 and
vacuum pressure of 500 mm Hg.
Time (min) Volume of Filtrate (mL)
26 100
96 200
197 300
342 400
537 500
692 600
989 690
5. A calcium–carbonate slurry is to be filtered in a press having a total area of and operated at a
constant pressure drop of 2 atm. The frames are thick. Assume that the filter medium resistance
is 155x105 per ft. Calculate filtration time and the volume of filtrate obtained in one cycle. Cake
density=73 lb/ft3. The specific cake resistance,
α(ft/lb) = 2.90 X 1010 (Δp in lb/ft2)0.26
Concentration of slurry = 14.7 lb/ft3