Ultrafiltration membranes are typically made from various polymeric materials, such as cellulose acetate, cellulose acetate esters, polyethylene, polysulfone, polyamide, and aromatic polymers.
Applications: Ultrafiltration membranes are widely used in the advanced treatment of industrial wastewater and process water, such as the concentration, purification, and separation of macromolecules in the chemical, food, and pharmaceutical industries; sterilization of biological solutions; dye separation in dyeing and printing wastewater; recovery of glycerol from petrochemical wastewater; recovery of silver from photographic chemical wastewater; and the preparation of ultrapure water. They can also be used for sludge thickening and dewatering.
Performance Characterization: Performance is expressed as pure water permeability (m²·h) and molecular weight cutoff and percentage cutoff. Higher pure water permeability is better; a cutoff of >99% is generally required. High-quality ultrafiltration membranes have a high pore density and a narrow pore size distribution.