A Review of Colloidal Interactions in Membrane Separation

Membrane separation processes are of great and increasing importance in a number of industrialsectors, most notably the production of clean drinking water, treatment of wastewater, the food and dairyindustries and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. understanding of interactions between dissolvedsolute molecules and suspended colloidal particles with membranes used industrially is fundamental fordeveloping strategies for the reduction offouling of separation membranes. fouling of membranes by forminga cake or thin film over the membranes results in a time dependant reduction in the operating efficiency ofsuch membranes and can incur a number of economic costs, due to reduced transport, the requirement forpre-treatment and downtime to clean membranes. in this review we will outline the interaction forces which mayoccur in solution between suspended colloids and membrane surfaces.