Effect of functional groups of humic substances on uf performance

Irreversible membrane fouling during ultrafiltration of surface water

For more efficient use of membranes, the control of irreversible membrane fouling, which can be defined as fouling requiring chemical reagents to be mitigated, is of importance. In this study, irreversible fouling caused by constituents in surface water was investigated, based on a long-term pilot scale study. The membrane employed was a low-pressure hydrophobic ultrafiltration (UF) membrane made of polysulfone and having a molecular weight cutoff of 750,000 Da. Various chemical reagents were examined to overcome the irreversible fouling that had developed through 5 months of continuous filtration. Among the tested cleaning reagents, alkaline (NaOH) and oxidizing reagent (NaClO) showed good performance in the restoration of membrane permeability, which implied that organic matter played an important role in the development of the irreversible fouling in this study. Chemical analysis, adsorptive fractionation methods, fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (EEM) and Fourie-transformed infra-red (FTIR) spectra analysis were applied to elucidate which fraction of organic matter caused the irreversible fouling. All of the analysis indicated that polysaccharide-like organic matter was responsible for the evolution of the irreversible fouling. In addition to organic matter, presumably iron and manganese also contributed to the irreversible fouling to some extent.

A new normalization method for determination of colloidal fouling potential in membrane processes

Normalization of permeate flux data is widely used to characterize membrane fouling under different experimental conditions. The main intention of normalization is to allow a fair comparison of feed water fouling potentials by eliminating the effects of different operational parameters used in the experiments, such as net driving pressure and clean-membrane resistance. However, it was demonstrated that the commonly used intuitive normalization methods usually could not serve their intended purpose. In this study, a new normalization method was proposed for characterizing water-fouling potential based on fundamental principles of membrane fouling. The intention of this normalization method was to define a fouling potential for feed water that was independent of, or at least, not strongly affected by operational conditions. Laboratory-scale ultrafiltration fouling tests were conducted under different colloid sizes, concentrations, and driving pressures. The experiments showed that the fouling potentials defined by the newly proposed normalization method were linearly related to the colloid concentration of the feed water and that the effect of operational conditions used in the fouling experiments on the fouling potential was minimal.

Removal of organic matter from water by PAC/UF system

The laboratory-scale ultrafiltration (UF) experiments were conducted to determine the effect of the presence of powdered activated carbon (PAC) on the UF process performance, in terms of flux decline and the possibilities of membranes cleaning during backwashing. Poly(vinylidene fluoride) membranes formed by the phase inversion technique were used in the UF experiments. A model solution was prepared as a mixture of humic acids (HA) and phenol in concentration of 10 and 1 mg l(-1), respectively. Commercial powdered activated carbons CWZ 11 and CWZ 30 (Gryfskand Sp. z o. o., Hajnówka, Poland) were used as the adsorbents. PAC dosage was in the range of 10-100 mg PAC l(-1). The process was carried out in the cross-flow system. It was found that PAC addition to the distilled water leads to a small drop in the permeate flux, regardless of PAC dose and its type. Although PAC particles are too large to block the membrane pores inside, they deposit on the membrane surface and partially can plug the surface pores. The experimental results demonstrate that the backwashing process applied in combined PAC/UF system was especially effective when PAC dosages were <20mg PAC l(-1). However, a similar permeate flux was maintained for all carbon dosages used and reached the value of about 1 m3 m(-2) d(-1). Moreover, no further drop in the permeate flux for PAC addition to the solution containing foulants (HA) was observed. Effectiveness of the removal of HA and phenol from the model solutions was also investigated. In the PAC/UF system HA were removed in about 90%, whereas the complete removal of phenol was achieved for PAC dosage equal to 100 mg l(-1).

Combined effect of natural organic matter and surfactants on the apparent solubility of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Both natural organic matter (NOM) and surfactants are known to enhance the apparent aqueous solubility of hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) in aqueous systems. In this study, the combined effect of NOM and surfactants on enhancing the solubility of HOCs was investigated, since both may occur and affect the fate and transport of HOCs in natural aqueous environments. Experimental results indicated that the apparent solubility of naphthalene, phenanthrene, and pyrene in NOM and anionic surfactant solution was lower than their solubility in NOM solution alone. However, the apparent solubility of an HOC in NOM and nonionic surfactant solution is almost the same as the sum of the HOC's solubility in NOM solution plus its solubility in nonionic surfactant solution. The observation that apparent aqueous solubility of HOCs in NOM and anionic surfactant solution is decreased is probably due to the fact that the cations that are released when the anionic surfactant dissociates may form ion pairs with acidic or phenolic groups associated with the NOM. This serves to increase the size of hydration of these groups, thereby decreasing the effective size of the nonpolar moieties associated with the NOM, and thus decreasing hydrophobic partitioning of the HOCs into the NOM. The results presented here will help us to understand the effect of NOM and surfactants on the fate and transport of HOCs in aquatic systems.