Industries have taken advantage of the benefits of the filtration process to produce a product that is going to be market ready. Some examples of industries that make use of filtration include agriculture, dairy and the automobile industry. Although most of us use those products daily, we may not think about filtration that is used in producing those products. Here is a little bit about membrane filtration so that you can have more of an overview of what takes place behind the scenes. On a basic level, membrane filtration is a way of separating solids from liquids. This technique uses a filter which has pores and it that are large enough to allow the liquid to pass through but are not so large that they allow the solids to pass through. These types of membranes are known as semi-permeable because they can be permeated by the liquid but not by the solid. As an example, membrane filtration may be used for filtering milk in order to produce cheese. It is going to separate liquids from the solids and both may be used in the process. There are also many different types of membrane filtration that are available and each industry is going to need to determine how much filtering is necessary. The amount of filtering that takes place by the membrane occurs because of the size of the pores. If additional filtration is needed, the pores are going to be smaller. There are times when it is necessary to use several different membrane filters in order to get things as pure as necessary. By filtering out the larger items first, it will make it much easier for the liquid to pass through a finer membrane filter. One popular type of membrane filtration is reverse osmosis. This is one that is used in many homes but it is also used in a commercial sense, often for purifying water in a clinical setting. Most people, even those that have reverse osmosis filters in their home are unaware of how this type of filtration works. In essence, reverse osmosis is a type of membrane filtration in which water is passed through a semi permeable membrane in order to keep the dissolved solids on one size of the membrane and the purified water on the other. In the end, you end up with a type of pure water that is better tasting and it may actually be healthier for you. Other types of membrane filtration include ultrafiltration, microfiltration and nanofiltration. These are all types of filtration that use very small pores in order to purify a solvent more thoroughly. These may be used in various industries, with some being industry specific. One of the problems with these types of membrane filtration units is the fact that they tend to clog easily. That is because the pores, which trap the solids and allow the liquid to pass through become full of those trapped particles. Cleaning the membrane and keeping it clean is imperative for providing the filtration that is necessary.
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