Research experiences in direct potable water treatment using coagulation/ultrafiltration

2005 ◽  
Vol 51 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 221-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Lerch ◽  
S. Panglisch ◽  
R. Gimbel

Recently, new concepts for direct or pre-treatment minimised processes for the treatment of surface waters to potable water have aroused more and more interest. The requirements of such concepts are various and express the desire for high flexibility, adaptation on various water qualities and expandability of the treatment process. These requirements can be nearly ideally achieved by membrane technology. This publication presents the actual approach in research, piloting and operation of selective plants, research institutions and universities for the hybrid process coagulation/ultrafiltration (UF), or microfiltration (MF) respectively. The focus is set on the discussion of the influences of the mass freight, coagulation conditions, temperature and theoretical considerations about the coating layer build-up in dead-end and IN/OUT-mode driven MF and UF capillary membranes with a coagulation step prior to membrane filtration.

2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 277-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.Q.J.C. Verberk ◽  
J. Post ◽  
W.G.J. van der Meer ◽  
J.C. van Dijk

Capillary nanofiltration is a new concept in membrane filtration. This technique combines the advantages of the good water quality obtained from nanofiltration membranes with the easy hydraulic cleaning of capillary membranes. Direct capillary nanofiltration can be used to treat ground water or surface water without pre-treatment. At the Delft University of Technology several MSc-thesis projects have been carried out on this subject. This paper will describe some results of these studies. A model based on a mass balance to predict the flux of a capillary nanofiltration installation treating groundwater is proposed. In this model the only resistance taken into account is the concentration polarisation. Also a model to predict the flux when treating surface water has been developed. This model takes into account the resistance due to cake filtration.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2A) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Muniz De Almeida Albuquerque

The water purification procedure aims to obtain a product appropriate for human consumption, minimizing the presence of contaminants and toxic substances present in the water. Among these contaminants, some radionuclides of natural origin, such as uranium, thorium and their descendants, have been identified. Studies have shown that the stages of purification are quite effective in removing the radionuclides contained in water. The removal is due to co-precipitation of the radionuclides with the suspended materials and the precipitated material is accumulated and characterized as a Technologically Concentrated Natural Occurrence Radioactive Material (TENORM) by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). This residue can present significant levels of radioactivity and, when discarded in the environment without any treatment, can generate a problem of environmental impact and a risk to the health of the population. In this way, some gamma emitters of the series of U, Th and the K-40 were determined in the residues generated at the Potable Water Treatment Plants – PWTPs in six municipalities of Pernambuco. The results obtain corroborate the classification of the residues generated in the PWTPs as concentrators of the radioactive components contained in the water supplied to the system and reinforce the need for the release to the environment, which is the usual way of disposal of this waste, to be carried out only after considering the radiological protection standards established.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.Y. Choi ◽  
B.A. Dempsey

The objective of the research was to evaluate in-line coagulation to improve performance during ultrafiltration (UF). In-line coagulation means use of coagulants without removal of coagulated solids prior to UF. Performance was evaluated by removal of contaminants (water quality) and by resistance to filtration and recovery of flux after hydraulic or chemical cleaning (water production). We hypothesized that coagulation conditions inappropriate for conventional treatment, in particular under-dosing conditions that produce particles that neither settle nor are removed in rapid sand filters, would be effective for in-line coagulation prior to UF. A variety of pre-treatment processes for UF have been investigated including coagulation, powdered activated carbon (PAC) or granular activated carbon (GAC), adsorption on iron oxides or other pre-formed settleable solid phases, or ozonation. Coagulation pre-treatment is often used for removal of fouling substances prior to NF or RO. It has been reported that effective conventional coagulation conditions produced larger particles and this reduced fouling during membrane filtration by reducing adsorption in membrane pores, increasing cake porosity, and increasing transport of foulants away from the membrane surface. However, aggregates produced under sweep floc conditions were more compressible than for charge neutralization conditions, resulting in compaction when the membrane filtration system was pressurized. It was known that the coagulated suspension under either charge-neutralization or sweep floc condition showed similar steady-state flux under the cross-flow microfiltration mode. Another report on the concept of critical floc size suggested that flocs need to reach a certain critical size before MF, otherwise membranes can be irreversibly clogged by the coagulant solids. The authors were motivated to study the effect of various coagulation conditions on the performance of a membrane filtration system.


Membranes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 460
Author(s):  
Bastiaan Blankert ◽  
Bart Van der Bruggen ◽  
Amy E. Childress ◽  
Noreddine Ghaffour ◽  
Johannes S. Vrouwenvelder

The manner in which membrane-fouling experiments are conducted and how fouling performance data are represented have a strong impact on both how the data are interpreted and on the conclusions that may be drawn. We provide a couple of examples to prove that it is possible to obtain misleading conclusions from commonly used representations of fouling data. Although the illustrative example revolves around dead-end ultrafiltration, the underlying principles are applicable to a wider range of membrane processes. When choosing the experimental conditions and how to represent fouling data, there are three main factors that should be considered: (I) the foulant mass is principally related to the filtered volume; (II) the filtration flux can exacerbate fouling effects (e.g., concentration polarization and cake compression); and (III) the practice of normalization, as in dividing by an initial value, disregards the difference in driving force and divides the fouling effect by different numbers. Thus, a bias may occur that favors the experimental condition with the lower filtration flux and the less-permeable membrane. It is recommended to: (I) avoid relative fouling performance indicators, such as relative flux decline (J/J0); (II) use resistance vs. specific volume; and (III) use flux-controlled experiments for fouling performance evaluation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yeit Haan Teow ◽  
Meng Teck Chong ◽  
Kah Chun Ho ◽  
Abdul Wahab Mohammad

AbstractAiming to mitigate wastewater pollution arising from the palm oil industry, this university-industry research-and-development project focused on the integration of serial treatment processes, including the use of moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR), pre-treatment with sand filters and activated carbon filters, and membrane technology for aerobically-digested palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment. To assess the potential of this sustainable alternative practice in the industry, the developed technology was demonstrated in a pilot-scale facility: four combinations (Combinations I to IV) of unit operations were developed in an integrated membrane-filtration system. Combination I includes a MBBR, pre-treatment unit comprising sand filters and activated carbon filters, ultrafiltration (UF) membrane, and reverse osmosis (RO) membrane, while Combination II excludes MBBR, Combination III excludes UF membrane, and Combination IV excludes both MBBR and UF membrane. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to evaluate potential environmental impacts arising from each combination while achieving the goal of obtaining recycled and reusable water from the aerobically-digested POME treatment. It is reported that electricity consumption is the predominant factor contributing to most of those categories (50–77%) as the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides, and volatile mercury during the combustion of fossil fuels. Combination I in the integrated membrane-filtration system with all unit operations incurring high electricity consumption (52 MJ) contributed to the greatest environmental impact. Electricity consumption registers the highest impact towards all life cycle impact categories: 73% on climate change, 80% on terrestrial acidification, 51% on eutrophication, and 43% on human toxicity. Conversely, Combination IV is the most environmentally-friendly process, since it involves only two-unit operations – pre-treatment unit (comprising sand filters and activated carbon filters) and RO membrane unit – and thus incurs the least electricity consumption (41.6 MJ). The LCA offers insights into each combination of the operating process and facilitates both researchers and the industry towards sustainable production.


Biorheology ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 28 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 27-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Charcosset ◽  
L.R. Ding ◽  
M.Y. Jaffrin

2010 ◽  
Vol 162 (1) ◽  
pp. 208-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Samaras ◽  
A. Zouboulis ◽  
T. Karapantsios ◽  
M. Kostoglou

2001 ◽  
Vol 43 (10) ◽  
pp. 225-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Jarusutthirak ◽  
G. Amy

The reuse of treated wastewater to augment natural drinking water supplies is receiving serious consideration. Treatment of secondary and tertiary effluent by membrane filtration was investigated by assessing nanofiltration (NF) membrane and ultrafiltration (UF) membranes in bench-scale experiments. It was found that secondary and tertiary effluent contained high concentration of effluent organic matter (EfOM), contributing EfOM-related fouling. Flux decline and EfOM rejection tests were evaluated, using a dead-end stirred cell filtration unit. Surface charge and molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of membranes were significant factors in membrane performance including permeability and EfOM-rejection.


2001 ◽  
Vol 43 (8) ◽  
pp. 9-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Schofield

Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) has become increasingly important in the field of potable water treatment, as a preferred option for treating upland and stored lowland waters. This paper outlines the development of dissolved air flotation (DAF) in potable water treatment, the benefits and disadvantages and the recent advances that has taken the process technology from an art to a science.


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