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Expected membrane life typically > 10 years
Membrane replacement cost <<polymeric membranes
Chemical cleaning cycles are short, minimizing downtime and improving throughput
Continuous online backpulse cleaning reduces cleaning cycles required
Unexpected maintenance shutdowns are very rare
Pumping energy is minimal (20-50 psi)
Not designed for specific chemistry
Operate over a pH range of 0 to 14 (click here for comparison with polymeric membranes)
Effective for filtering bacteria, organic and inorganic solids, precipitates, silts
Very narrow mean pore-size distribution (click here for typical size distribution)
0.06 NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Units)
<1 ppm TSS (Total Suspended Solids)
<1 SDI (Silt Density Index)
> 6 log reduction in total coliform
Absolute filter for Cryptosporidium and Giardia
High temperature tolerance; operating temperature typically determined by seal capabilities
(click here for comparison with polymeric membranes)
Impervious to most chemicals, organic and inorganic
>2,000 psi bust pressure; operating pressure typically determined by seal capabilities
Impervious to surfactants, enzymes, amino acids, and bacterial activity
“Pin Floc” failures not possible
No secondary filter required
Do not degrade with cleaning or chemical exposure
Impervious to abrasion in typical applications
Do not develop “channeling”
Do not become brittle, crack, or rupture like polymeric membranes
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| Narrow Mean Pore Size Distribution |
• Provides a tight lower and upper cut-off of particle size which is important in some applications such as in pharmaceutical and biotechnical industries.
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| High Temperature Tolerance |
• Tolerance up to 800 °F, the ceramic membrane can withstand much higher temperatures, but most applications are seal-material limited.
• High temperature operation is important in food handling, industrial chemical processes, some waste recovery uses such as industrial laundries and plating operations where energy recovery is important.
• Higher temperature operation increases permeate flux rates and improves the aggressiveness of cleaning solutions.
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| Impervious to Most Chemicals |
• Ideal for filtration of organic chemicals that can attack polymeric- based membrane materials.
• High temperature firing and minimal use of binders along with alpha-alumina crystal structure provide immunity to chemical attack
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| Mechanically Robust |
• Typical burst pressures above 2,000 psi, allows the continuous application of rigorous backpulse cleaning resulting in longer intervals between chemical cleaning cycles.
• Allows very high operating pressures required by some high-solids filtration applications such as beer and juice clarification and some pharmaceutical /biotechnology fermentation and extraction processes.
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| Complete Recovery of Design Flow |
• Polymeric membranes degrade with each cleaning cycle and therefore have limited life in many applications: also, polymeric membranes may change their mean pore size distribution with repeated chemical cleaning.
• Scaling and biological fouling can be aggressively cleaned with very low/high pH chemicals: synthetic organic fouling can be attacked with very aggressive organic solvents and/or very low/high pH chemicals
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| Impervious to surfactants, enzymes, amino acids and bacterial activity |
• Allows use of the most affective methods for removing hydrocarbon (oils, greases, waxes) contamination from membranes and separation of emulsified hydrocarbons from wastewaters.
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