Abstract
Abstract Membrane filtration represents a unique separation technique as it can be employed for both concentrating and purifying a multicomponent process stream. To achieve these twin‐objectives, diafiltration is required. Diafiltration is an operation mode of a pressure‐driven membrane filtration process in which a diluant (i.e.,∼water or any other solvent or buffer) is added to the process liquor in order to enhance the degree of separation of membrane‐retained macrosolutes from membrane‐permeable microsolutes. Depending on the separation target, diafiltration may be performed with microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, or reverse osmosis membranes. The separation target can be reached by using either batch or continuous processing mode. Diafiltration is an indispensable tool in separating multicomponent process streams and widely used in the food and beverage, chemical, biotechnological, and pharmaceutical industries. This article introduces the reader to the fundamentals of diafiltration. It provides a brief survey on the most important applications and discusses the various configurations, general design equations, control strategies, and diluant utilization strategies used in batch and continuous diafiltration practice
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