Last Updated on July 24, 2022 by Kevin Chen
MBR membrane bioreactor is a biological reaction system that combines membrane separation technology and the bioreactor, which can improve the separation of sludge and water, and at the same time use biological technology to filter impurities such as organic matter in water. MBR hollow fiber membrane is a kind of MBR membrane bioreactor, which can be backwashed. The following will tell you about the backwashing knowledge of hollow fiber MBR membranes.
What is Backwashing?
Backwash refers to flushing with clean water for online cleaning. Online cleaning refers to flushing the membrane by adding a backwashing device. Usually, the backwash pump is connected to the produced water. The backwash pump is started to use the pressure to pressurize the produced water and pass through the MBR membrane in the reverse direction without disassembly. Offline cleaning is to disassemble the membrane equipment for deep cleaning. Contrary to the backwashing of the membrane, it is the forward washing. The external high-pressure water pipe flushing equipment or allowing the clean water to pass through the MBR membrane normally are all forward washing.
How to Clean the MBR Membrane?
The above paragraph mentioned backwashing. Generally speaking, backwashing belongs to physical cleaning. We can use chemicals to clean it by adding cleaning agents. The membrane’s chemical cleaning includes online and offline chemical cleaning. Online chemical cleaning adds a cleaning agent to the backwash water, and offline chemical cleaning immerses the membrane equipment in the chemical cleaning agent. In addition, there are physical cleaning methods such as blower blowing, ultrasonic cleaning, etc.
What is the Function of Backwashing?
Backwashing is one of the easiest water-based methods to ensure that submerged MBR hollow fiber membranes maintain optimum permeability under various operating conditions. Backwashing reverses the flow of water through the membrane and slightly expands the membrane pores to remove solid particles adhering to the surface of the membrane fibers.
- The optimized backwash mode ensures high water permeability of the membrane.
- We can shut the system down in the shortest possible time and operate efficiently over time.
- Reduce the frequency of maintenance and restorative cleaning.
- Reduced consumption of cleaning agents.
- When the system is operated in backwash mode, backwashing is performed every 12 minutes at 30-second intervals at 20 gfd (34 lmh) strength without dosing.
The above is the answer to the question “Can hollow fiber MBR membranes be backwashed?” Cleaning hollow fiber MBR membrane is one of the operational aspects of the complete water treatment filtration system. To keep the filtration system in stable operation, we should carry out the corresponding process strictly following the specifications. If you still have questions about the related cleaning methods, please feel free to contact SPERTA.
