X-flow B.v.

Gede Wenten

Dirk M Koenhen

Hendrik D Roesink

Gunnar Jonsson

Alan Rasmussen

The invention relates to a process for the removal of components causing turbidity, from a fluid, by means of microfiltration, whereby the fluid is beer, wine, fruit juice, bacterial suspension, blood, milk, enzyme suspension, etc. According to the invention, the fluid to be treated is fed across an asymmetric membrane having a pore structure such that the pores on the feed side of the membrane are larger than the nominal pore size and the pores of nominal pore size occur in the cross section toward the permeate side, the filtered off components are back-flushed from the membrane and are subsequently carried away with the fluid. The nominal pore size is usually 0.1-5.0 .mu.m and preferably 0.2-1.0 .mu.m. The membrane may be tubular, flat or capillary. Back-flushing takes place intermittently with a frequency of 1 second to 10 minutes for 0.1-1 second at a counter pressure of 0.5-5 bar. The feed velocity is preferably below 2 m/s and the pressure difference over the membrane is less than 0.5 bar.

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Bali, Indonesia

Gede Wenten