Steady-State Modeling of Electroultrafiltration at Constant Concentration

Abstract A simple mathematical model was developed to predict the steady-state electroultrafiltration (a combination of ultrafiltration and electrophoresis) flux for processing bovine serum albumin (BSA) solutions at constant concentration. The assumption that the wall concentration is an exponential function of the electric field strength gave a linear dependence of flux on electric field strength. This dependence was experimentally confirmed for electroultrafiltration of 1–4 wt% BSA solutions at pH 7.4, using Amicon XM-50 membranes with a transmembrane pressure drop of 5 psig. The mathematical model uses the values of the solution and solvent fluxes for normal ultrafiltration plus the electrophoretic mobility of the solute to predict the electroultrafiltration flux. The difference between the model predictions and the measured performance was 7.5%.