Japan Organo Co., Ltd.

Keisuke Kitazato

Yoshio Sunaoka

Satoru Tsuda

There is disclosed a process for scrubbing hollow fiber membranes in at least one hollow fiber membrane module disposed in a hollow fiber membrane filter column wherein the hollow fiber membrane module includes a large number of hollow fibers bundled together therein as the hollow fiber membranes. In the process, the filtration step of passing raw water through the pores of the hollow fibers from the outsides thereof to the insides thereof to thereby trap the fine particles on the outer surfaces of the hollow fibers is followed by the scrubbing step of charging bubbles into water around the outer surfaces of the hollow fibers to agitate the water to vibrate the hollow fibers, thereby exfoliating the fine particles trapped on the outer surfaces of the hollow fibers. This scrubbing is effected either in such a two stage manner that relatively coarse, hard, fine particles exfoliated in the initial stage of the scrubbing step is removed, followed by second-stage scrubbing, or by carrying out the scrubbing step while simultaneously removing the relatively coarse, hard, fine particles exfoliated in the initial stage of the scrubbing step. The scrubbing step is followed by the drain step of draining the resulting waste water out of the system.

Process for scrubbing porous hollow fiber membranes in hollow fiber

There is disclosed a filtration process using at least one hollow fiber membrane module including a large number of porous hollow fibers bundled therein. In the process, the filtration step of passing raw water containing fine particles through the pores of the hollow fibers from the outsides thereof to the insides thereof to thereby trap the fine particles on the outer surfaces of the hollow fibers is followed by the cooling step of lowering the temperature of water inside the hollow fiber membrane module to cool the hollow fibers before the scrubbing step of charging bubbles into water around the outer surfaces of the hollow fibers to vibrate the hollow fibers to thereby exfoliate the fine particles trapped on the outer surfaces of the hollow fibers. The scrubbing step is followed by the drain step of draining the resulting waste water out of the system.

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Kumamoto, Japan

Keisuke Kitazato