Provide PDF Format
AWWA WQTC71420
- Characterization of a Highly Fouling Fraction of Algogenic Organic Matter in Low- and High-Pressure Membrane Filtration
- Conference Proceeding by American Water Works Association, 11/01/2009
- Publisher: AWWA
$12.00$24.00
Algal blooms cause membrane fouling in seawater desalination. High-pressure reverse osmosis(RO) membranes are affected by algogenic organic matter (AOM) that passes throughpretreatment. When the pretreatment technology is low-pressure microfiltration (MF) orultrafiltration (UF), it is severely fouled by AOM and algal cells. AOM is heterogeneous in sizebecause algae are broken apart during natural cell lysis or by shear in pumps and valves. Themain hypothesis of this work is that a certain size class of AOM is the most highly fouling.Bench-scale experiments revealed that in both high-pressure and low-pressure filtration,particulate AOM between 0.22 and 2 µm in size tends to be the highly fouling fraction on themembranes currently employed in most applications. Adsorption of biopolymers had littlefouling potential when particulate material was not present. Includes 15 references, figures.