Biofouling control on ultrafiltration membrane through immobilization of polysaccharide-degrading enzyme: optimization of parameters

Abstract

AbstractMembrane biofouling remains a significant challenge in the application of ultrafiltration (UF) pretreatment systems in desalination and water industries. Bacterial biofilms produce extracellular polymeric substances, which contain alginate as a major component. There has been an ongoing search to look for passive/non-chemical means of mitigating this problem. We present a method based on immobilization of a polysaccharide-degrading enzyme, alginate lyase (Alg L), onto cellulose acetate membrane to control biofilm formation. Various parameters like Alg L concentration, cross-linker concentration and pH were optimized. Two immobilization procedures were adopted and the Alg L immobilization efficiency of each method was compared. Activation of membrane with a cross-linking agent, followed by Alg L immobilization was found to be relatively more effective. Immobilization was confirmed by determining the activity of the immobilized enzyme; viscosity decrease corresponding to enzymatic degradation of the...