Ultrafiltration of Synthetic Polymers. Part I. Optimization of Solvent Flux during Diafiltration

The use of ultrafiltration as a unit operation is increasing significantly and prompts this optimization study. An exact analysis is presented which defines, as a function of the rejection coefficient, the optimum retentate concentration which minimizes the processing time for diafiltration. Three approximate solutions are also presented, and the results are compared with those from the exact solution. Experimental data are presented for the variation of ultrafiltrate flux with retentate concentration for two membrane types used with two synthetic polyelectrolytes.