BACKPRESSURE TESTING OF ROTARY MICROFILTER DISKS
The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), under the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM), is modifying and testing the SpinTek{trademark} rotary microfilter (RMF) for radioactive filtration service in the Department of Energy (DOE) complex. The RMF has been shown to improve filtration throughput when compared to other conventional methods such as cross-flow filtration. A concern with the RMF was that backpressure, or reverse flow through the disk, would damage the filter membranes. Reverse flow might happen as a result of an inadvertent valve alignment during flushing. Testing was completed in the Engineering Development Laboratory (EDL) located in SRNL to study the physical effects of backpressure as well as to determine the maximum allowable back-pressure for RMF disks. The RMF disks tested at the EDL were manufactured by SpinTek{trademark} Filtration and used a Pall Corporation PMM050 filter membrane (0.5 micron nominal pore size) made from 316L stainless steel. Early versions of the RMF disks were made from synthetic materials that were incompatible with caustic solutions and radioactive service as well as being susceptible to delaminating when subjected to backpressure. Figure 1-1 shows the essential components of the RMF; 3 rotating disks and 3 stationary turbulence promoters (or shear elements) are shown. Figure 1-2 show the assembly view of a 25 disk RMF proposed for use at the Savannah River Site (SRS) and at the Hanford Facility. The purpose of the testing discussed in this report was to determine the allowable backpressure for RMF disks as well as study the physical effects of backpressure on RMF disks made with the Pall PMM050 membrane. This was accomplished by pressurizing the disks in the reverse flow direction (backpressure) until the test limit was reached or until membrane failure occurred. Backpressure was applied to the disks with air while submerged in deionized (DI) water. This method provided a visual representation of membrane integrity via bubble flow patterns. Membrane failure was defined as the inability to filter effectively at the nominal filter pore size. Effective filtration was determined by turbidity measurements of filtrate that was produced by applying forward-pressure to the disks while submerged in a representative simulant. The representative simulant was Tank 8F simulated sludge produced for SRNL by Optima Chemical. Two disks were tested. Disk 1 was tested primarily to determine approximate levels of backpressure where membrane failure occurred. These levels were then used to define the strategy for testing the Disk 2; a strategy that would better define and quantify the mode of failure.
- Research Organization:
- Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC09-08SR22470
- OSTI ID:
- 1018680
- Report Number(s):
- SRNL-STI-2010-00790; TRN: US201114%%451
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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