LAUSR

Membranes have been increasingly considered as a promising technology to conventional crystallization processes. One of the most significant benefits would be to control the supersaturation by fine-tuning the mass transfer throughout the membrane. Several investigations on this topic have already been proposed using porous materials. However, numerous authors dealt with scaling phenomena with either pore blocking or surface fouling. To reduce this issue, the use of dense skin membranes seems to be an interesting alternative while keeping other membrane advantages. The present study aims at analyzing the potential of nonporous materials in membrane contactors used for crystallization purposes. More specifically, two major scientific challenges are investigated closely: how to avoid membrane fouling by choosing appropriate membrane materials and to predict, potentially, the crystallization location in/on a dense polymeric material. The global aim of this study is to better understand the fouling mechanisms ...