Sonicated membrane separation

Abstract

Membrane separation processes are currently proven technologies in many areas. The main limitation of these processes is the accumulation of matter at the membrane surface which leads to two phenomena: concentration polarization and membrane fouling. According to the publications of numerous authors permeate flux could be increased by sonication. Our work focuses on separation of real broth by sonicated ultrafiltration. The broth was originated from hydrolysis of grounded corn-cob by xylanase enzyme. The filtration was carried out in a laboratory batch stirred cell with a sonication rod sonicator. In our work the effect of the stirring, the intensity of sonication and the membrane-transducer distance was studied on the efficiency of the ultrafiltration and on the quality of separated enzymes. Results reveal that xylanase enzyme can be effectively separated from real fermentation broth by ultrafiltration and enzymes keep their activity after the process. Enzyme activity tests show that low energy sonication is not harmful to the enzyme.