Ultrafiltration

Membrane filtration technologies such as ultrafiltration (UF) have emerged as viable options for addressing the current and future drinking water regulations related to treatment of surface water, groundwater under the direct influence of surface water, and water reuse applications for microbial and turbidity removal. The range of pore size of ultrafiltration membranes is between 0.01 and 0.1 microns.



The UF process is a membrane separation technique that separates components in a liquid stream based upon their molecular weight. Depending on the membrane type, the membrane will reject components with molecular weights from 500 to 500,000 daltons. Large salt crystals, suspended solids, organics, viruses, and bacteria are very effectively removed using ultrafiltration.  UF has been shown to exceed the removal efficiencies identified in the Surface Water Treatment Rule such as Cryptosporidium oocyst, Giardia cyst, and turbidity.