scholarly journals Raw Water Storage as a Simple Means for Controlling Membrane Fouling Caused by Inorganic Foulants in River Water in a Tropical Region

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1592
Author(s):  
Hashimoto ◽  
Gunawan ◽  
Wattanachira ◽  
Wongrueng ◽  
Takizawa

Natural waters in tropical countries are turbid and rich in inorganic substances such as iron and manganese. Hence, membrane fouling by these inorganic substances is the most serious problem in membrane filtration processes for potable water production. This study aimed to assess raw water storage as a simple but effective means for controlling membrane fouling in the filtration of river water in a tropical country. Raw water taken from the Ping River in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in different seasons, was either immediately filtered or stored in a tank for two days before filtration through a polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membrane with a nominal pore size of 0.1 μm. The turbidity and particulate organic carbon (POC) in the raw water were reduced by storage, while dissolved manganese was oxidized during the storage period. Although the amounts of metallic substances retained on membranes were larger than those of silica and organic matter, their contribution to the fouling resistance was found to be less than silica and organic carbon. The fouling analysis using hydraulically irreversible fouling index (HIFI) was found to be not able to measure the effects of storage when the initial flux increased. Hence, the ratio of the hydraulically reversible fouling index (HRFI) to the total fouling index (TFI), i.e., HRFI/TFI, was proposed to elucidate the effects of raw water storage on membrane fouling, which was manifest during the early stage of membrane filtration operation.

2001 ◽  
Vol 1 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 341-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Takizawa ◽  
L. Fu ◽  
N. Pradhan ◽  
T. Ike ◽  
M. Ohtaki ◽  
...  

Experimental studies on chemical and biological pretreatments in membrane filtration processes were carried out to removal manganese contained in raw water and to prevent membrane fouling due to manganese. Two types of the pretreatment reactors, i.e. the fluidised-bed and fixed-bed configurations, were compared in the biological pretreatment experiments. New synthetic media (tubular polypropylene, I.D. 3 mm, O.D. 4 mm, length 5 mm) were used in all three experiments as a manganese-oxidising catalyst. The chemical pretreatment using sodium hypochlorite was effective in manganese removal and controlling membrane fouling; more than 0.8 mg-Cl2/L of chlorine dose was necessary to bring the manganese concentration from 0.4 mg/L in raw water to less than 0.05 mg/L. The biological pretreatment for manganese removal required a long start-up period of more than 40 days. The fixed-bed biological pretreatment was superior in manganese removal and in control of membrane fouling to the fluidised-bed biological pretreatment, which showed wash-out of the attached bacteria resulting in membrane fouling. The linear velocity and the empty-bed retention time required for the treatment of 0.14 mg-Mn/L in the fixed-bed biological pretreatment was 206 m/d and 8.0 minutes, respectively.


2020 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-208
Author(s):  
Zahra Vojdani ◽  
Beata Gorczyca

Abstract Membrane filtration is commonly applied to reduce dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to control the formation of trihalomethanes (THMs); however, high levels of DOC can cause severe fouling of reverse osmosis membranes. The integrated biological and reverse osmosis membrane (IBROM) process is a combination of biological filters and reverse osmosis membranes. The IBROM process claims to remove biodegradable dissolved organic carbon (BDOC), which apparently should result in reduced membrane fouling. The goal of this research was to conduct a preliminary investigation into the claims of the IBROM system, using water collected from the Herbert water treatment plant (Saskatchewan). The plant is utilizing the IBROM for the treatment of a dugout and groundwater blend (DOC of 17.5–22.7 mg/L). The results demonstrated that BDOC concentrations did not change significantly throughout the plant. Optimized laboratory-scale coagulation with polyaluminium chlorohydrate achieved 58% removal of BDOC. Oxidation with permanganate increased the concentration of BDOC (from 5.7 to 8.8 mg/L). Overall, BDOC was effectively removed by optimized coagulation rather than the IBROM system. Moreover, the results show an inverse relationship between BDOC and THMs formation potential (THMFP) in both coagulated and oxidized water. For all concentrations, more biodegradable DOC had less tendency to form THMs based on the lower THMFP.


2000 ◽  
Vol 41 (10-11) ◽  
pp. 77-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.Y. Huang ◽  
S. Takizawa ◽  
K. Fujita

Successful application of energy efficient dead-end micro-filtration (MF), which does not require recirculation like cross-flow filtration, depends on achieving high recovery rates. In this study, two different types of pilot scale membrane systems (horizontally and vertically stretched membrane filters) were evaluated based on the effects of pre-chlorination, intermittent chlorination and circulation flow by air-scrubbing. Additionally, the effects of operating factors including physical cleaning and chemical cleaning on membrane fouling were examined. The vertically stretched membranes showed better performance than horizontally stretched membranes at filtration fluxes of either 0.55 m/day or 0.78 m/day even under 2.6 to 27.5°C and raw water turbidity higher than 300 units, as long as intermittent chlorination (10 mg/l once a week) along with the circulation flow by air-scrubbing (once in 30 minutes) in the housing were employed. It was demonstrated that the vertically stretched membranes have been operated for one year without chemical cleaning of the membranes, wherein the recovery of raw water as a filtrate was 97.0% or 98.9%.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 610-617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susumu Hasegawa ◽  
Taro Miyoshi ◽  
Ryosuke Takagi ◽  
Hideto Matsuyama

Abstract Many studies on membrane fouling have been made and reported, and it has been revealed, based on liquid chromatography organic carbon detection (LC-OCD), that biopolymer is the main foulant in the drinking water treatment process, in which the raw water is taken from a river or a dam. However, measurement by LC-OCD is time-consuming and costly. Therefore, continuous measurement of biopolymer concentration by LC-OCD is not feasible. For this reason, we have not been able to monitor biopolymer continuously and control membrane fouling. The purpose of this study is to find a new fouling index (FR) to control membrane fouling without measuring the biopolymer concentration. Then, we tried to find a correlation between biopolymer and other water components by a multiple regression analysis. As the result, we have suggested the new fouling index (FR) which consists of the sum of the fluorescence intensity within the Region III domain measured by excitation emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy and the concentration of dissolved organic carbon measured by the total organic carbon (TOC) measurement. TOC and EEM are measured easily and continuously. Thus, we can control membrane fouling by monitoring the FR continuously.


2004 ◽  
Vol 50 (12) ◽  
pp. 111-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. te Poele ◽  
J.H. Roorda ◽  
J.H.J.M. van der Graaf

The application of membrane filtration for the polishing of wastewater treatment plant (wwtp) effluent is more and more widely used. However, fouling problems are still not well understood. In order to investigate the role of particles in dead-end ultrafiltration of wwtp-effluent, Roorda studied the influence of pre-filtrated wwtp-effluent on the filterability. In addition this research investigates the relation between the filterability of the different fractions in the wwtp-effluent and the amount of organic foulants in these fractions. The results show a relation between the filterability and supra-dissolved particles in the fractions <0.45 and <0.2 μm. The amount of COD, colour, proteins and polysaccharides in these fractions are found of minor importance. A significant increase in filterability is found between the fractions <0.2 and <0.1 μm as well as a significant decrease in amount of polysaccharides. It is suggested that an essential feature in understanding membrane fouling during ultrafiltration of wwtp-effluent is to investigate the influence of supra-dissolved particles on the filterability as well as the influence of the amount of organic foulants (total organic carbon, proteins, polysaccharides, colour and humic substances) on the reversibility.


2001 ◽  
Vol 1 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 141-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Sawada ◽  
I. Sumida ◽  
K. Matsumoto

The preliminary study investigated the effect of pre-ozonation of synthetic raw water (bentonite and humic acid) on membrane fouling. The results showed that humic acid, not bentonite, was the dominant factor in membrane fouling. When the synthetic raw water was pre-treated using ozone and activated carbon, stable operation was possible at twice the flux of membrane filtration without pre-treatment. Thus, ozone and activated carbon reduced the concentration of organic matter (humic acid), leading to an increase in flux. Secondly, an MF membrane filtration device with ozone tolerance was attached downstream of the ozone reactor so that residual ozone could reach the membrane surface. When water was treated with MF membrane filtration in the presence of ozone, the flux was stable at 4 m/d. The membrane filtration resistance increased when ozone was not injected, and decreased when it was injected. This phenomenon was repeatable. In the presence of ozone, organic matter that could accelerate fouling as decomposed and converted to less fouled materials, resulting in a suppression of fouling as well as facilitating removal of the fouling layer during back washing.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 555
Author(s):  
Renata Żyłła ◽  
Stanisław Ledakowicz ◽  
Tomasz Boruta ◽  
Magdalena Olak-Kucharczyk ◽  
Magdalena Foszpańczyk ◽  
...  

The possibility of removing tetracycline (TRC) from water in an integrated advanced oxidation and membrane filtration process was investigated. Ozonation and UV/H2O2 photooxidation were applied for the destruction of TRC. Six oxidation products (OPs) retaining the structural core of TRC have been identified. One new TRC oxidation product, not reported so far in the literature, was identified—ethyl 4-ethoxybenzoate. All identified OPs were effectively retained on the membrane in the nanofiltration process. However, chemical oxygen demand (COD) measurements of the filtrates showed that in the case of UV/H2O2 oxidation, the OPs passed through the membrane into the filtrate. Various water matrices were used in the research, including the river water untreated and after ozone treatment. It has been shown that organic matter present in surface water can improve pharmaceutical retention, although it contributes to significant membrane fouling. Pre-ozonation of the river water reduced the membrane fouling. The XPS analysis was used to show ozone and H2O2 influence on the top polymer layer of the membrane. It was shown that the oxidants can damage the amide bond of the polyamide.


2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. L. Manuszak ◽  
M. MacPhee ◽  
S. Liskovich ◽  
L. Feldsher

The City of Baltimore, Maryland is one of many US cities faced with challenges related to increasing potable water demands, diminishing fresh water supplies, and aging infrastructure. To address these challenges, the City recently undertook a $7M study to evaluate water supply and treatment alternatives and develop the conceptual design for a new 120 million gallon per day (MGD) water treatment plant. As part of this study, an innovative raw water management tool was constructed to help model source water availability and predicted water quality based on integration of a new and more challenging surface water supply. A rigorous decision-making approach was then used to screen and select appropriate treatment processes. Short-listed treatment strategies were demonstrated through a year-long pilot study, and process design criteria were collected in order to assess capital and operational costs for the full-scale plant. Ultimately the City chose a treatment scheme that includes low-pressure membrane filtration and post-filter GAC adsorption, allowing for consistent finished water quality irrespective of which raw water supply is being used. The conceptual design includes several progressive concepts, which will: 1) alleviate treatment limitations at the City's existing plants by providing additional pre-clarification facilities at the new plant; and 2) take advantage of site conditions to design and operate the submerged membrane system by gravity-induced siphon, saving the City significant capital and operations and maintenance (O&M) costs. Once completed, the new Fullerton Water Filtration Plant (WFP) will be the largest low-pressure membrane plant in North America, and the largest gravity-siphon design in the world.


2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 215-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.R. Costa ◽  
M.N. de Pinho

Membrane fouling by natural organic matter (NOM), namely by humic substances (HS), is a major problem in water treatment for drinking water production using membrane processes. Membrane fouling is dependent on membrane morphology like pore size and on water characteristics namely NOM nature. This work addresses the evaluation of the efficiency of ultrafiltration (UF) and Coagulation/Flocculation/UF performance in terms of permeation fluxes and HS removal, of the water from Tagus River (Valada). The operation of coagulation with chitosan was evaluated as a pretreatment for minimization of membrane fouling. UF experiments were carried out in flat cells of 13.2×10−4 m2 of membrane surface area and at transmembrane pressures from 1 to 4 bar. Five cellulose acetate membranes were laboratory made to cover a wide range of molecular weight cut-off (MWCO): 2,300, 11,000, 28,000, 60,000 and 75,000 Da. Severe fouling is observed for the membranes with the highest cut-off. In the permeation experiments of raw water, coagulation prior to membrane filtration led to a significant improvement of the permeation performance of the membranes with the highest MWCO due to the particles and colloidal matter removal.


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