Methods of visualizing hydrodynamics and fouling in membrane filtration systems: recent trends

Membrane filtration is a key technology for producing freshwater sustainably. However, fouling is a major setback in this technology. Several studies have revealed that hydrodynamics significantly affects the fouling pattern. This review highlights the recent trends in the use of methods to visualize hydrodynamics and fouling in membrane filtration systems. These methods can be classified into invasive and non-invasive types. Invasive methods are predominantly used for root cause analysis of fouling and are more oriented towards industrial applications. The non-invasive methods such as computational fluid dynamics, biofouling simulation, and real-time fouling-monitoring are used to understand hydrodynamics in the membrane channel, the kinetics and mechanism of fouling deposition, etc., and aid substantially in laboratory-scale studies. These methods have shown great potential to predict membrane performance in real-scale applications. Since the non-invasive and invasive methods are “preventive” and “cure” types, respectively, the recent focus has shifted more towards non-invasive methods. This review paper comprehensively discusses these techniques along with an outline of the future scope of work.