Saagar Vijayaragavan
Technical Director
Complete Filtration Resources, Inc.

Saagar Vijayaragavan is the Technical Director of CFR (Complete Filtration Resources, Inc.). Saagar has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Michigan Technological University. He has published papers on downstream processing and bio-separations; particularly water purification from viral pathogens using membrane functionalization, creating affinity capture sites. At CFR Saagar is the technical lead on designing membrane system, continuous improvement models, membrane cleaning etc.

Saagar is a vital member for technical development and growth at CFR.

Technique to Maximize Productivity in a Filtration System

In crossflow filtration recognizing the importance of pressure and velocity we system design, size and select a membrane area for achieving desired retentate concentration and flux at given feed conditions (temperature, pH, viscosity, concentration). Optimization of the process using these variables is well defined from design engineer’s point of view in addition to considerations such as the membrane manufacturers’ specification, engineering economics, safety factor etc. Diafiltration (DF) or addition of water to remove permeable species is a known technique to increase concentration of the target product while reducing membrane surface area. For a continuous multi stage system, there are several ways to operate a DF process from changing DF volume ratio to identifying the stage requiring the additional flux. This technique has a large scope of improvement and an optimization range to maximize productivity and minimize the capital expenditures. This presentation focuses on the system flux calculations and attendant plots supported by a rationale of DF addition for design enhancement.