Finned spacer for enhancing the impact of air bubbles for membrane fouling control in Chlorella vulgaris filtration

Membrane filtration offers appreciable promise as an effective process to harvest microalgae biomass but largely limited by membrane fouling. This study proposed a new spacer system for fouling control in Chlorella vulgaris filtration. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of finned spacer in directing the air bubbles toward the membrane surface thus improve their contacts and their foulant removal impacts. The projection of air bubbles is more effective at narrow fins gaps. The increasing aeration rate proportionally increases permeance until reaching a plateau value of 870 ± 11 L·m�2·h�1·bar at 1.5 L·min�1 aeration, the highest reported value so far. Switching mode can be applied to increase module packing density without compromising performance and is effective at switching periods of <5 min. Overall results are very encouraging and promising to obtain significant improvement in membrane fouling control. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd