First UK-Israeli Workshop on the Application of Membrane Technology in Water Treatment and Desalination and 2nd Oxford Water and Membranes Research Event 15th–20th June 2008

First UK-Israeli Workshop on the Application of Membrane Technology in Water Treatment and Desalination and 2nd Oxford Water and Membranes Research Event: University of Oxford, UK, 15–20 June 2008

The complex dimensions of the Mediterranean freshwater resources, their fragility and their scarcity have been highlighted and have received considerable attention as a primary priority issue politically, technically and scientifically. Membrane technology, with its different applications in water treatment (desalination, potable water treatment, wastewater treatment and reuse) has showed to be a powerful tool to abate the water crisis in the Mediterranean region. The primary objective of Membrane Technology in Water Treatment in the Mediterranean Region is to support the current research and development activities in membrane technology focused on water treatment in the Mediterranean area, providing an international stage to local research organisations and universities devoted to the development of membrane technologies in the following areas: municipal and industrial wastewater treatment, surface water purification and brackish and sea water treatment for drinking purpose. It covers the identification, mapping and evaluation of the on-going research, in order to propose future research and co-operation strategies. Visit the IWA WaterWiki to read and share material related to this title: http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/MembraneTechnologyinWaterTreatmentintheMediterraneanRegion

Ozone oxidation for the alleviation of membrane fouling by natural organic matter: A review

In wastewater treatment, membrane technology is called a major technology in the field of water treatment in the 21st century. With the development of membrane technology and the development of other emerging technologies in combination, microfiltration membrane technology is widely used in the treatment of various types of wastewater such as radioactive wastewater and heavy metal wastewater. The application of microfiltration technology in radioactive and heavy metal wastewater is described. It provides a solid guarantee for deepening the research and application of water treatment.

Ceramic membrane with double catalytic layer for efficient peroxymonosulfate activation and dissolved organic matter (DOM) membrane fouling control

Upcycled PVC support layer from waste PVC pipe for thin film composite nanofiltration membranes

One of the demanding challenges of the twenty-first century is to improve the decontamination of the water by sustainable and economically adaptable technologies. Traditional water treatment technologies, though efficient, give rise to several problems and not adaptable that obstructs the development processes. The application of membrane technology in wastewater treatment has been gaining great interest and has shown potential results for the elimination of toxic pollutants. Nanofiltration (NF) in membrane technologies is relatively recent development and is explored due to stringent water quality standards. NF has outplaced reverse osmosis in most of the applications due to high flux rates with better pollutant rejection. This chapter incurs to address the principles and concepts of NF membrane technology for water treatment including fundamental mechanism and fouling in the process. Besides, a general outline was made on the different membrane fouling types and mitigation strategies in NF process and future perspectives.

Fulfilling the demand of clean potable water to the general public has long been a challenging task in most developing countries due to various reasons. Large-scale membrane water treatment systems have proven to be successful in many advanced countries in the past two decades. This paves the way for developing countries to study the feasibility and adopt the utilization of membrane technology in water treatment. There are still many challenges to overcome, particularly on the much higher capital and operational cost of membrane technology compared to the conventional water treatment system. This review aims to delve into the progress of membrane technology for water treatment systems, particularly in developing countries. It first concentrates on membrane classification and its application in water treatment, including membrane technology progress for large-scale water treatment systems. Then, the fouling issue and ways to mitigate the fouling will be discussed. The feasibility of membrane technologies in developing countries was then evaluated, followed by a discussion on the challenges and opportunities of the membrane technology implementation. Finally, the current trend of membrane research was highlighted to address future perspectives of the membrane technologies for clean water production.

Wastewater reuse is an essential constituent of sustainable water management globally. The pulp and paper industry causes substantial volumes of polluted wastewater per ton of paper and is also one of the largest consumers of fresh water per ton of paper production. As a result, these effluents should be efficiently treated to protect the environment, aquatic life and humans from intoxication. The kraft pulp and paper industry has encountered the challenge of reducing the discharge of conventional and toxic pollutants to the environment. The objective of this chapter is to evaluate the use of several membrane technologies (pressure-driven) to treat the discharged alkaline extraction bleaching effluents from kraft paper and pulp cellulose production units. The application of membrane technology in water and wastewater treatment is increasing due to stringent water quality standards. The membrane process has been classified into four broad categories depending on the membrane’s pore size: microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO). This chapter briefly reviews the application of MF, UF, NF and RO for pulp and paper industry wastewater treatment, including fundamentals, mechanisms, fouling challenges and their controls. It also focuses on the application of pressure-driven ceramic membrane technology for the treatment of bleaching effluents from the kraft and pulp industry.

With the rapid development of membrane technology in water treatment, there is a growing demand for membrane products with high performance. The inorganic hollow fiber membranes are of great interest due to their high resistance to abrasion, chemical/thermal degradation, and higher surface area/volume ratio therefore they can be utilized in the fields of water treatment. In this study, the alumina (Al2O3) hollow fiber membranes were prepared by a combined phase-inversion and sintering method. The organic binder solution (dope) containing suspended Al2O3 powders was spun to a hollow fiber precursor, which was then sintered at elevated temperatures in order to obtain the Al2O3 hollow fiber membrane. The dope solution consisted of polyethersulfone (PES), Nmethyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), which were used as polymer binder, solvent and additive, respectively. The prepared Al2O3 hollow fiber membranes were characterized by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TG). The effects of the sintering temperature and Al2O3/PES ratios on the morphological structure, pure water flux, pore size and porosity of the membranes were also investigated extensively. The results showed that the pure water flux, maximum pore size and porosity of the prepared membranes decreased with the increase in Al2O3/PES ratios and sintering temperature. When the Al2O3/PES ratio reached 9, the pure water flux and maximum pore size were at 2547 L/m2·h and 1.4 μm, respectively. Under 1600dgC of sintering temperature, the pure water flux and maximum pore size reached 2398 L/(m2·h) and 2.3 μm, respectively. The results showed that the alumina hollow fiber membranes we prepared were suitable for the microfiltration process. The morphology investigation also revealed that the prepared Al2O3 hollow fiber membrane retained its’asymmetric structure even after the sintering process.

12 Membranes play an important role in the wastewater and drinking water processing. Membrane processes are increasingly finding role in sensor and monitoring system design. The challenges facing the designing of such analytical systems and those of the conventional membrane processes have several similarities. In this presentation fundamentals of membrane technology, current trends and future possibilities pertinent to water industry are discussed.

ABSTRACTThe popularity of membrane technology in water treatment has been rising for over last 50 years due to wide range of filtration processes and applications, cost effective production and installation as well as safe and efficient water production. However, the development and improvement of membranes is ongoing due to number of weaknesses. Membrane fouling is a major drawback of membrane application in water and waste water treatment. Mostly caused by natural organic matter (NOM), fouling forms a layer on top of the membrane and blocks pores reducing the water permeation and can be potentially destructive to the membrane structure. The issue of membrane fouling can be addressed during membrane manufacturing, maintenance and operation. In the current study, the graphene-based nanomaterials (GBN) were incorporated in polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) to manufacture membranes via the phase-inversion technique. The resulting membranes show significant improvement to the properties of the pure PVDF membranes and their antifouling ability. The addition of GBN enhanced the water permeation by over 79% as a result of increased membrane hydrophilicity. Although this enhancement is beneficial, membrane fouling remained an issue despite the observed improvement. In this study, ozone, which is an effective oxidant, was evaluated as a novel technique for the cleaning of humic acid-fouled membranes. When ozone cleaning was applied to the humic acid-fouled membranes, reestablishment of close to original flux values was observed after just 30 min of cleaning. This statement is supported by SEM images that give an insight into the fouling of the membrane surface after the application of the cleaning methods. The data indicate that ozone is an effective technique for membrane cleaning against NOM-induced fouling.

For more efficient use of membrane technology in water treatment, it is essential to understand more about the fouling that requires chemical cleaning to be eliminated (i.e., irreversible fouling). In this study, five different MF/UF membranes and four types of organic matter collected from different origins were examined in terms of the degree of irreversible membrane fouling. Experimental results demonstrated that the extent of irreversible fouling differed significantly depending on the properties of both the membrane and organic matter. Among the tested membranes, UF membranes made of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) exhibited the best performance in terms of prevention of irreversible fouling. In contrast, MF membranes, especially one made of polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF), suffered significant irreversible fouling. Conventional methods for characterization of organic matter such as specific ultraviolet absorption (SUVA), XAD fractionation, and excitation‐emission matrix (EEM) were found to be inadequate for prediction of the degree of irreversible fouling. This is because these analytical methods represent an average property of bulk organic matter, while the fouling was actually caused by some specific fractions. It was revealed that hydrophilic fraction of the organic matter was responsible for the irreversible fouling regardless of the type of membranes or organic matter.

Process Intensification in Water and Wastewater Treatment Systems

Mechanical properties of water desalination and wastewater treatment membranes