scholarly journals Effects of Ferrihydrite-Impregnated Powdered Activated Carbon on Phosphate Removal and Biofouling of Ultrafiltration Membrane

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1178
Author(s):  
Jenyuk Lohwacharin ◽  
Thitiwut Maliwan ◽  
Hideki Osawa ◽  
Satoshi Takizawa

The presence of multiple contaminant species in surface waters makes surface water treatment difficult to accomplish through a single process. Herein, we evaluated the ability of an integrated adsorption/ultrafiltration (UF) membrane filtration system to simultaneously remove phosphates and dissolved organic matter (DOM). When bare powdered activated carbon (PAC) and PAC impregnated with amorphous ferrihydrite (FHPAC) adsorbents were compared, FHPAC showed a greater adsorption rate and capacity for phosphate. FHPAC had a phosphate adsorption capacity of 2.32 mg PO43−/g FHPAC, even when DOM was present as a competing adsorbate. In a lab-scale hybrid FHPAC-UF system (i.e. integrated adsorption by FHPAC with UF membrane filtration), irreversible membrane fouling was ca. three times lower than that in a PAC-UF system. When membrane fouling in the PAC-UF system was described with pore blockage models, we found that the main cause of fouling was bacterial deposition on the membrane surface. CLSM analysis determined that the chemical composition of foulants in the PAC-UF system included higher proportions of proteins, nucleic acids, and alpha-polysaccharides than that in the FHPAC-UF system. Overall, FHPAC’s ability to undergo ligand exchanges with DOM helped to reduce the nutrients and bacteria that cause biofouling to accumulate on the membrane surface.

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.


2017 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 211-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lihua Sun ◽  
Ning He ◽  
Xi Duan ◽  
Bingbing Yang ◽  
Cuimin Feng ◽  
...  

Abstract The combined processes of powdered activated carbon/biological powdered activated carbon- ultrafiltration (PAC/BPAC-UF) were used to treat secondary effluent. In this study, the effect of PAC and BPAC on membrane flux, membrane resistance and the removal of different molecular weight organic compounds were investigated. In addition, the structure characteristics of the microorganisms of the BPAC were analyzed. The results showed that the optimum dosage of PAC and BPAC was 10 mg/L and 40 mg/L respectively. The reversible membrane fouling resistance of BPAC-UF was higher than that of PAC-UF, and the two processes had the least irreversible resistance at the best dosage. The biodegradation of BPAC increased the concentration of small molecular weight organic matter up to 10,000 Da in the membrane effluent. So the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removal effect of BPAC-UF process worsened. Microorganisms such as Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Planctomycetes and other microorganisms on the surface of the BPAC enhanced the removal of organic matter in water. The results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) scans showed that there was net mucus membrane on the UF membrane surface before the backwashing of the BPAC-UF process which increased the proportion of reversible pollution resistance. The physical flushing effect of BPAC-UF was better than that of direct UF and PAC-UF processes.


Membranes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 260
Author(s):  
Nafiu Umar Barambu ◽  
Derrick Peter ◽  
Mohd Hizami Mohd Yusoff ◽  
Muhammad Roil Bilad ◽  
Norazanita Shamsuddin ◽  
...  

Increasing global concern on clean water scarcity and environmental sustainability drive invention in water reclamation technology. Laundry wastewater reclamation via membrane technology faces the challenge of membrane fouling. This paper assesses a tilting-the-filtration-panel filtration system for the treatment of real laundry wastewater filtration aimed for water and detergent reuse. Results showed that the panel tilting significantly improved fouling control and enhanced permeability due to enhanced contact of air bubbles with the membrane surface, which induced continuous detachment of foulant from the membrane surface. The combination of aeration rate and tilting angle resulted in up to 83% permeability enhancement from 109 to 221.4 ± 10.8 (L/m2·h·bar). The system also offers 32% detergent recovery. Overall findings suggest that the system offers an attractive approach for both fouling management and detergent recovery and can potentially be applied under a simple setup in which filtration can be driven by gravity/hydrostatic pressure.


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.


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.


Membranes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 369
Author(s):  
Shengji Xia ◽  
Xinran Zhang ◽  
Yuanchen Zhao ◽  
Fibor J. Tan ◽  
Pan Li ◽  
...  

The membrane separation process is being widely used in water treatment. It is very important to control membrane fouling in the process of water treatment. This study was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of a pre-oxidation-coagulation flat ceramic membrane filtration process using different oxidant types and dosages in water treatment and membrane fouling control. The results showed that under suitable concentration conditions, the effect on membrane fouling control of a NaClO pre-oxidation combined with a coagulation/ceramic membrane system was better than that of an O3 system. The oxidation process changed the structure of pollutants, reduced the pollution load and enhanced the coagulation process in a pre-oxidation-coagulation system as well. The influence of the oxidant on the filtration system was related to its oxidizability and other characteristics. NaClO and O3 performed more efficiently than KMnO4. NaClO was more conducive to the removal of DOC, and O3 was more conducive to the removal of UV254.


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.


Membranes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 380
Author(s):  
Yan Chen ◽  
Huiping Li ◽  
Weihai Pang ◽  
Baiqin Zhou ◽  
Tian Li ◽  
...  

Nanofiltration (NF) is a promising post-treatment technology for providing high-quality drinking water. However, membrane fouling remains a challenge to long-term NF in providing high-quality drinking water. Herein, we found that coupling pre-treatments (sand filtration (SF) and ozone–biological activated carbon (O3-BAC)) and NF is a potent tactic against membrane fouling while achieving high-quality drinking water. The pilot results showed that using SF+O3-BAC pre-treated water as the feed water resulted in a lower but a slowly rising transmembrane pressure (TMP) in NF post-treatment, whereas an opposite observation was found when using SF pre-treated water as the feed water. High-performance size-exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) and three-dimensional excitation–emission matrix (3D-EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy determined that the O3-BAC process changed the characteristic of dissolved organic matter (DOM), probably by removing the DOM of lower apparent molecular weight (LMW) and decreasing the biodegradability of water. Moreover, amino acids and tyrosine-like substances which were significantly related to medium and small molecule organics were found as the key foulants to membrane fouling. In addition, the accumulation of powdered activated carbon in O3-BAC pre-treated water on the membrane surface could be the key reason protecting the NF membrane from fouling.


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