The effects of antifoam agent on membrane filtration

In order to overcome the problems caused by foaming, antifoam agent or known as deformer has been introduced in various industries especially for cell culture use. Since then, it has been the important compound to minimize the effects of foaming. Proclaimed researches have shown that every antifoam is not just ruin the foam with various efficiency, but will give effect to the same cell and protein. The concentration and type of antifoam that are needed to relieve the foam must be same with the potential consequences obtained from the process. The benefit to the process depends on the higher the concentration of antifoam than would normally be used [4]. The purpose of this study is to determine how antifoam effect the filter performance. For this studies, the result can be divide into 2 which are by using 1000 LMH and 2000 LMH. Flowrate of pump have been constant to 25ml/min for 1000 LMH and 50 ml/min for 2000 LMH. The concentration of antifoam is varies between 0.2%, 0.6% and 1%. The pressure and time taken per 5 ml of volume pass through the membrane filter has been recorded. From the data, flux, volumetric flowrate, resistance and loading capacity can be determined. The results show that the higher the concentration of antifoam, the resistance will get higher that will result to reduced time taken for the filter membrane to get clogged. Moreover, there also increase in pressure due to the formation of cake or modification of the membrane pore size. Due to this, the loading capacity of the filter has been reduced. The result also demonstrated that the flux rate is decreasing with time. Thus, the presence of antifoam in the feed load of a filtration process may disturb the filtration performance