Characterizations of the colloidal and microbial organic matters with respect to membrane foulants

Effect of the membrane exclusion mechanism on phosphate scaling during synthetic effluent desalination

Calcium phosphate scaling is one of the main limitations in effluent desalination using membranes. This may be overcome by tailoring membranes with lower rejection of the scalant ions. In this study, we systematically examined the use of negatively and positively charged membranes, rejecting ions mainly based on Donnan exclusion, as a low-scaling alternative to dielectric-exclusion-dominated polyamide NF membranes for effluent desalination. The two charged membranes exhibited a lower calcium and especially phosphate rejection than the polyamide membrane. Consequently, the calcium phosphate supersaturation and then the propensity to scaling of the charged membranes were much lower than the polyamide membrane. This also allowed filtering at a much higher recovery ratio with the charged membranes. It was also found that, despite the fact that the charged membranes had an opposite fixed charge, their scaling behavior was similar. Apparently, although these membranes showed opposite selectivity towards scalant ions (phosphate and calcium) in single salt solutions, the rejection pattern in mixed salt solutions resulted in similar saturation indices, much lower than for polyamide membrane. The scale formed on all three membranes was identified as amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP), although its saturation index was lower than its solubility factor. This was explained by concentration polarization which increases the saturation index in the solution adjacent to the membrane surface. Tests in absence of permeate flux showed a much slower precipitation that took a few days compared with filtration conditions (few hours). In addition, under these conditions, the effect of the scaling on the membrane permeability was generally reduced and the scale contained crystalline calcium phosphate products, different from ACP. The results indicate that the ion rejection and resulting polarization next to the membrane surface plays a crucial role in scaling. Thus, tuning ion selectivity of NF membranes towards scalant ions presents a promising alternative for scaling mitigation during effluent desalination.

Investigating Influence of Hydrological Regime on Organic Matters Characteristic in a Korean Watershed

Source tracking of dissolved organic matter (DOM) is important to manage water quality in rivers. However, it is difficult to find the source of this DOM because various DOMs can be added from the river watershed. Moreover, the DOM composition can be changed due to environmental conditions. This study investigated the change of organic matter characteristics in the Taewha River of Ulsan City, Korea, before and after rainfall. A Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to simulate water flow from various sources, and dissolved organic matter characterization was conducted in terms of molecular size distribution, hydrophobicity, fluorescence excitation and emission, and molecular composition. From the results, it was found that lateral flow transported hydrophobic and large-molecule organic matter after rainfall. According to the orbitrap mass spectrometer analysis, the major molecular compound of the DOM was lignin. Coupling the SWAT model with organic matter characterization was an effective approach to find sources of DOM in river.

Electricity generation from food wastes and characteristics of organic matters in microbial fuel cell

The microbial fuel cell (MFC) was evaluated as an alternative way to recover electricity from canteen based food waste. Characteristics of the organics in food waste before and after the MFC treatment were analyzed to investigate how the organic matters were biodegraded and transformed during the MFC treatment. A maximum power density of 5.6W/m(3) and an average output voltage of 0.51V were obtained. During the MFC operation, the hydrophilic and acidic fractions were more readily degraded, compared to the neutral fractions. Additionally, aromatic compounds in the hydrophilic fraction were more preferentially removed than non-aromatic compounds. The MFC could easily remove the tryptophan protein-like substances in all fractions and aromatic proteins in hydrophilic and hydrophobic neutral fractions. Additionally, the hydrophobic amide-1 proteins and aliphatic components were readily hydrolyzed and biodegraded in the MFC. These findings may facilitate the pretreatment and posttreatment choices for MFC system fed with food waste.

Simultaneously photocatalytic treatment of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) using rotating reactor under solar irradiation

In this study, simultaneous treatments, reduction of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) and oxidation of endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), such as bisphenol A (BPA), 17α-ethinyl estradiol (EE2) and 17β-estradiol (E2), were investigated with a rotating photocatalytic reactor including TiO₂ nanotubes formed on titanium mesh substrates under solar UV irradiation. In the laboratory tests with a rotating type I reactor, synergy effects of the simultaneous photocatalytic reduction and oxidation of inorganic (Cr(VI)) and organic (BPA) pollutants were achieved. Particularly, the concurrent photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI) and oxidation of BPA was higher under acidic conditions. The enhanced reaction efficiency of both pollutants was attributed to a stronger charge interaction between TiO₂ nanotubes (positive charge) and the anionic form of Cr(VI) (negative charge), which are prevented recombination (electron-hole pair) by the hole scavenging effect of BPA. In the extended outdoor tests with a rotating type II reactor under solar irradiation, the experiment was extended to examine the simultaneous reduction of Cr(VI) in the presence of additional EDCs, such as EE2 and E2 as well as BPA. The findings showed that synergic effect of both photocatalytic reduction and oxidation was confirmed with single-component (Cr(VI) only), two-components (Cr(VI)/BPA, Cr(VI)/EE2, and Cr(VI)/E2), and four-components (Cr(VI)/BPA/EE2/E2) under various solar irradiation conditions.

Photochemical formation of hydroxyl radical from effluent organic matter: role of composition

The photochemical formation of hydroxyl radical (HO(•)) from effluent organic matter (EfOM) depends upon the chemical properties of this heterogeneous mixture. In this study, two EfOM samples collected from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP A and B) were fractionated by both hydrophobicity (bulk and non-humic) and apparent molecular weight (AMW). The apparent quantum yield for HO(•) formation (ΦHO(•)) and the maximum fluorescence quantum yield (ΦF) were subsequently measured for each subfraction. The formation rates of HO(•) (considering only the hydrogen-peroxide-independent pathways) for the bulk waters were 4.8 × 10(-10) and 9.6 × 10(-11) M s(-1) for WWTP A and B, respectively. For the AMW fractions, the values of ΦHO(•) increased as the AMW of the material decreased. For the WWTP A sample, the ΦHO(•) increased from 2.54 × 10(-4) (bulk water) to 6.29 × 10(-4) for the <1 kDa fraction, and for the WWTP B sample, the value of ΦHO(•) increased from 6.50 × 10(-5) for bulk water to 3.45 × 10(-4) for the <1 kDa fraction. In the case of fluorescence, the values of ΦF ranged from 2.37 × 10(-4) (bulk water) to 3.48 × 10(-4) (<1 kDa fraction) for WWTP A and 3.19 × 10(-4) (bulk water) to 5.75 × 10(-4) (<1 kDa fraction) for WWTP B. There was a linear correlation between ΦHO(•) and ΦF, suggesting that different photophysical processes occur in the chemical components of the fractions. Understanding the formation of HO(•) from EfOM is essential for understanding wastewater-impacted aquatic systems because these results influence the photochemical degradation and mineralization of trace organic contaminants.

Influence of velocity gradient in a hydraulic flocculator on NOM removal by aerated spiral-wound ultrafiltration membranes (ASWUF)

A hydraulic coagulation-flocculation processes combined with aerated spiral-wound ultrafiltration membranes (ASWUF) was designed with the objective of improving natural organic matter (NOM) removal by ASWUF in the treatment of water for human consumption. The pilot-scale experimental system had capacity for treating 0.9 m(3)/h. Dosage of Cl(3)Fe as coagulant and hydraulic retention time (HRT) were calculated to generate microflocculation and different velocity gradients (G=27, 47, 87 and 104 s(-1)) were applied in the hydraulic flocculator. Operating alone, the ASWUF system achieved an NOM removal performance of 39% without problems of membrane clogging, although there was a significant correlation between effluent and influent quality. Application of microflocculation achieved considerable improvement in NOM removal, but values of G< or =87 s(-1) resulted in rapid clogging of the membrane due to flocs disintegration in the aerated membrane tank. Particle analysis revealed that the reduction of the velocity gradient had the effect of inclining the particle size distribution towards larger sizes, affecting both NOM removal capacity and membrane clogging. For G=104 s(-1) an NOM removal yield of 90% was reached, while transmembrane pressure (TMP) was stabilised as a result of the control of membrane clogging.

The fate of Transparent Exopolymer Particles (TEP) in integrated membrane systems: removal through pre-treatment processes and deposition on reverse osmosis membranes

The abundance of Transparent Exopolymer Particles (TEP) in surface waters has been unnoticed for many years until recently as a potential foulant in reverse osmosis systems. Recent studies indicate that TEP may cause organic and biological fouling and may enhance particulate/colloidal fouling in reverse osmosis membranes. The presence of TEP was measured in the raw water, the pre-treatment processes and reverse osmosis (RO) systems of 6 integrated membrane installations. A spectrophotometric method was used to measure TEP in the particulate size range (>0.40microm) and was extended to measure TEP in the colloidal size range (0.05-0.40microm). Ultrafiltration pre-treatment applied in 4 plants, totally removed particulate TEP while microfiltration systems (2 plants) and coagulation/sedimentation/rapid sand filtration systems (3 plants) partially removed this fraction. None of the pre-treatment systems investigated totally removed colloidal TEP. Biopolymer analysis using LC-OCD showed consistency between colloidal TEP and polysaccharide removal by UF pre-treatment and further verified the presence of TEP in the RO feedwater. TEP deposition in the RO system was determined after measuring total TEP concentrations in the RO feed and concentrate. The TEP deposition factors and specific deposition rates indicate that TEP accumulation had occurred in all plants investigated. This observation was verified by an autopsy of RO modules from two RO plants. Further improvement and verification of the (modified) TEP method, in particular the calibration, is necessary so that it can be employed to investigate the role of TEP in the fouling of RO systems.

Reduction of natural organic matter by nanofiltration process

The objectives of this investigation were to characterize natural organic matter (NOM) in Kin-men raw water, to evaluate the performance of the nanofiltration (NF) membrane process for NOM removal, and to determine the good engineering practice (GEP) of the NF 270 membrane filtration performance. Three different samples: (1) raw water collected from the Tai Lake in Kin-men, Taiwan; (2) ultrafiltration (UF) pre-treated water; and (3) sand filtration (SF) treated water after the coagulation and sedimentation processes were employed in this study. The hydrophobic component (58%) was the predominant NOM fraction, and the NOM molecular weight was distributed broadly, i.e., lower than 1 kDa (30%), 1-5 kDa (32%) and larger than 5 kDa (38%). Hydrophobic NOM easily accumulated on the NF membrane surface and resulted in flux decline. The SF-NF was the proposed treatment process because it can reduce the NOMs effectively with lower energy consumption than UF-NF. It was noted that the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) rejection ratio was not affected by changing cross-flow velocity. However, at lower cross-flow velocity (0.15 ms(-1)), the reduction of organic matter in water sample was higher than that at higher cross-flow velocity (0.30 ms(-1)). By integrating the experimental results, it was concluded that a transmembrane pressure of 690 kPa and a cross-flow velocity of 0.30 ms(-1) exhibited the GEP, yielding about 94% of both DOC and UV(254) reduction.

Application of immobilized nanotubular TiO(2) electrode for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution: reduction of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) in water

In this study, immobilized TiO(2) electrode is applied to reduce toxic Cr(VI) to non-toxic Cr(III) in aqueous solution under UV irradiation. To overcome the limitation of powder TiO(2), a novel technique of immobilization based on anodization was applied and investigated under various experimental conditions. The anodization was performed at 20V-5 degrees C for 45min with 0.5% hydrofluoric acid, and then the anodized samples were annealed under oxygen stream in the range 450-850 degrees C. Based on the results of the experiments, the photocatalytic Cr(VI) reduction was favorable in acidic conditions, with approximately 98% of the Cr(VI) being reduced within 2h at pH 3. Among the samples tested under same anodizing condition, the nanotubular TiO(2) annealed at 450 and 550 degrees C showed highest reduction efficiencies of Cr(VI). In addition, the surface characterizations (zeta potential, XRD, and SEM) of these samples proved that the Cr(VI) reduction efficiency was higher under acidic conditions and at a lower annealing temperature. From this research, it was concluded that the anodized TiO(2) has the potential to be a useful technology for environmental remediation as well as photocatalytic hydrogen production from water.

Fouling of nanofiltration membrane by effluent organic matter: characterization using different organic fractions in wastewater

The UF membrane with molecular weight cutoff (MWCO) ranging from 2 to 100 kDa and XAD-8 resin were employed to identify the characteristic of molecular weight (MW) distribution of wastewater effluent organic matter (EfOM) in terms of TOC and UV254, as well as the amounts of the hydrophilic/hydrophobic organic fractions in different MW ranges. Then, the nanofiltration (NF) membrane fouling experiments were carried out using the above fractionated water to investigate the effect of MW distribution and hydrophilic/hydrophobic characteristics of EfOM on the membrane flux decline using the fractionated water samples. The experimental results have shown that 45.61% of the total organics belongs to the low MW one, among which the percentage of the hydrophilic organics with low MW (less than 2 kDa) was up to 28.07%, while that of the hydrophobic organics was 17.54%. In particular, the hydrophilic fraction was found to be the most abundant fraction in the effluents. MW distribution has a significant effect on the membrane fouling. When the MW was less than 30 kDa, the lower the MW, the larger was the specific flux decline, while in the case of MW higher than 30 kDa, the higher the MW, the larger was the specific flux decline, and the decline degree of low MW organics was larger than the high MW one. With the same MW distribution range, specific flux decline of the hydrophilic organic was considerably slower than that of the hydrophobic organic, which indicated that the hydrophobic organic fractions dominantly contribute to the flux decline.