LARGE SCALE MONTE CARLO SIMULATION OF CROSSFLOW MEMBRANE FILTRATION FOR REMOVAL OF PARTICULATE MATERIALS

Membrane separation has emerged as a cost competitive, viable, and alternative way to achieve high quality emuent in comparison to conventional methods for drinking and industrial water production and also water reuse. However, membrane fouling, caused by deposition of suspended and dissolved solids, results in decreased performance of the filtration, especially a decline in permeate flux through the membrane. Membrane fouling can be minimized by chemical modification of the membrane surface, periodic backwashinglcleaning, and optimum operational conditions. Critical flux, which is dermed as the flux below which no fouling occurs, is becoming a crucially important concept related to optimum operation. Several methods were used to experimentally measure the critical flux, including direct observation through membrane, mass balance, and flux-pressure observations. In this study, a large-scale Monte Carlo simulation method for crossflow membrane filtration to remove particulate materials is developed to investigate dynamic particle structures associated with the critical flux. This computational study is performed on a parallel computer platform via message passing interface (MPI). Dominant mechanisms of particle transport, including Brownian and shear-induced diffusion, are incorporated