Minh Tran-Ha

Profile:

• B.E. Industrial Process Engineering, National Institute for Applied Sciences (INSA) Toulouse, France, 1993

• Australian Nuclear Science and Technology (ANSTO), Environmental Science Program, Chemical and Waste Engineering Section: Chemical Engineer March, 1993- January, 1994

• Graduate member of the Institution of Engineers, Australia

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Summary of Project whilst at the UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology:

There is a lack of information on the factors influencing the life of membranes used in the dairy industry. Cleaning of membrane systems is an important procedure to ensure hygiene standards and maintain membrane productivity. The optimisation of cleaning and sanitation procedures can improve membrane life and enhance the economics and productivity of the dairy plant.

This project aims to:

• Study the effect of water quality on the performance of ultrafiltration membrane
• Develop an accelerated measure of membrane life that could be used to determine the efficiency of cleaning regimes used for membrane systems
• Evaluate existing membrane cleaning protocols currently used in the dairy industry

Effect of ionic strength on membrane cleaning efficiency using water doped with cations of different valency.

Flux recovery after cleaning for 10 cycles using the standard protocol (citric acid - enzyme 1), Regime 1 (citric acid-alkaline) and Regime 5 (citric acid-enzyme 2). The standard protocol showed a steady reduction in flux recovery after each cleaning cycle. Regime 1 gave high flux recoveries after cleaning, with a flux recovery of 160% after 10 cycles. Regime 5 exhibited high flux recovery (over 100%) for the first 5 to 6 cycles, but experienced a constant decrease in flux recovery from the third cycle.

Experimental setup.

A/Prof D.E. Wiley

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Selected Publications:

• Tran-Ha, M.H., and Wiley, D.E., "Effect of water Quality on Membrane Cleaning Efficiency", IMSTEC '96, Sydney, 2, 125 - 127,1996
• Wiley, D.E., and Tran-Ha, M.H., "The Effect of Water Quality in the Cleaning of Membranes used in the Dairy Industry", Making the Most of Membrane Technology Seminar, Werribee, VIC, 1996
• Wiley, D.E., and Tran-Ha, M.H., "The Effect of Water Quality on the Cleaning of Membranes used in the Dairy Industry", Australian Journal of Dairy Technology, 52, 65 - 67, 1997
• Tran-Ha, M.H. and Wiley, D.E., "The Relationship between Membrane Cleaning Efficiency and Water Quality", Journal of Membrane Science, 145, 99 - 110, 1998.
• Tran-Ha, M.H., Wiley, D.E., Lawrence, N.D. and Iyer, M., "Development of a standard cleaning protocol to evaluate the effect of cleaning on membrane performance", Australian Journal of Dairy Technology, 57, No. 1, 20-29, 2002
• Tran-Ha, M.H. and Wiley, D.E., "Evaluation of some CIP protocols for the cleaning of membranes used in the dairy industry", submitted to Australian Journal of Dairy Technology, 2003
• Tran-Ha, M.H., Santos, V. and Wiley, D.E., "The effect of multivalent cations on membrane?protein interactions during cleaning with CTAB ", 251(1-2), 179-188, 2005.

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