Madaeni - Chemical Engineering Department, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
Saedi - Chemistry Department, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
Rahimpour - Chemical Engineering Department, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

Biofouling is the most important problem associated with the application of membrane. A strategy for membrane regeneration is chemical cleaning of fouled membrane. In this work we employed response surface methodology to optimize the cleaning efficiency of urea and 1- propanol with three variables of concentration of cleaning agent, time of cleaning, and stirring speed for cleaning of GVHP microfiltration membrane fouled by E.coli in a dead end cell. Predicted optimal conditions to achieve maximum flux recovery were elucidated. In optimum conditions concentration; time and stirring speed have the values of, 7.11, 38.87 and 968 respectively for1-poropanol and 8, 36.2 and 1050 for urea. Predicted flux recovery at these conditions is 74.9 for 1-poropanol and 95.37 for urea. Obtained average flux recoveries are 72.5 for 1-poropanol and 90.12 for urea.

membrane, chemical cleaning, biofouling, response surface methodology