A water treatment system includes a coagulating and flocculating system, an ultrafiltration membrane, and a fluid driver. The coagulating and flocculating system includes a first inlet for receiving water and a second inlet configured to receive a coagulating and flocculating agent. The coagulating and flocculating system is configured to precipitate dissolved phosphorous from the water, and to provide a flocculated effluent at an outlet of the coagulating and flocculating system. The ultrafiltration membrane includes an inlet that is fluidly coupled to an outlet of the coagulating and flocculating system. The ultrafiltration membrane is configured to separate the precipitated phosphorus from the flocculated effluent. The fluid driver is adapted to transfer the flocculated effluent from the outlet of the coagulating and flocculating system to the inlet of the ultrafiltration membrane at sustained flux rates of at least 150 LMH.

A cleaning-in-place method for cleaning a membrane filter module, the membrane filter module including a membrane having a feed side and a permeate side and being configured to filter a fluid passing through the membrane from the feed side to the permeate side; wherein the method comprises performing a sequence of process cycles, the sequence comprising at least one monitored process cycle, the monitored process cycle comprising: providing a flow of a liquid through the membrane and/or across the feed side of the membrane; monitoring at least one hydraulic parameter associated with the provided flow of the liquid; and terminating the flow of the liquid, when the at least one monitored hydraulic parameter meets a predetermined cycle completion criterion.

A water treatment system includes a coagulating and flocculating system, an ultrafiltration membrane, and a fluid driver. The coagulating and flocculating system includes a first inlet for receiving water and a second inlet configured to receive a coagulating and flocculating agent. The coagulating and flocculating system is configured to precipitate dissolved phosphorous from the water, and to provide a flocculated effluent at an outlet of the coagulating and flocculating system. The ultrafiltration membrane includes an inlet that is fluidly coupled to an outlet of the coagulating and flocculating system. The ultrafiltration membrane is configured to separate the precipitated phosphorus from the flocculated effluent. The fluid driver is adapted to transfer the flocculated effluent from the outlet of the coagulating and flocculating system to the inlet of the ultrafiltration membrane at sustained flux rates of at least 150 LMH.

There is provided a method for producing a product by cells, the method including filtering a cell broth through a porous membrane to obtain a product by the cells, in which the porous membrane has a liquid contact surface having at least any one selected from the group consisting of an opening ratio of 57.5% or less, a pore diameter having a coefficient of variation of 0.5 or less, and a ratio of pore diameter/fiber diameter of 1.3 or less, and the liquid contact surface has at least any one selected from the group consisting of a structural anisotropy of 0.97 or more and 1.03 or less and a ratio of long pore diameter/short pore diameter of 1.8 or less, and a shear stress due to a flow of the cell broth on the liquid contact surface is set to 4.0 N/m.sup.2 or less.

There is provided a method for producing a product by cells, the method including filtering a cell broth through a porous membrane to obtain a product by the cells, in which the porous membrane has a liquid contact surface having at least any one selected from the group consisting of an opening ratio of 57.5% or less, a pore diameter having a coefficient of variation of 0.5 or less, and a ratio of pore diameter/fiber diameter of 1.3 or less, and the liquid contact surface has at least any one selected from the group consisting of a structural anisotropy of 0.97 or more and 1.03 or less and a ratio of long pore diameter/short pore diameter of 1.8 or less, and a shear stress due to a flow of the cell broth on the liquid contact surface is set to 4.0 N/m.sup.2 or less.

A method (100) of filtering solids (41) from a solution (44) derived from blood plasma is disclosed. The method (100) comprises feeding (102) the solution (44) into a hollow fibre filter (12) at a feed rate, the hollow fibre filter (12) comprising a plurality of hollow fibres (38), each hollow fibre (38) comprising a membrane (36) defining an elongate hollow fibre channel (32). The method (100) further comprises filtering (104) the solution (44) using the hollow fibre filter (12) to produce a permeate (46) and a retentate (45), the permeate (46) passing through pores (37) of the membrane (36) at a trans-membrane pressure and the retentate (45) flowing from respective outlets of the elongate hollow fibre channels (32), wherein the permeate (46) has a reduced solids content with respect to the solution (44) fed into the hollow fibre filter (12).

A crossflow filter includes a rigid cylindrical inner wall and a rigid cylindrical outer wall inner with an inelastic filter membrane positioned therebetween defining a retentate channel inside the filter membrane and a permeate channel outside the filter membrane. Further, the filter includes transition channels shaped and connected to the inner and outer walls to deliver a flow of fluid from an inlet port to the retentate channel and to capture flow flowing longitudinally along the cylindrical inner and outer walls from both the retentate and permeate channels to respective outlet ports.