Impact of PAC Fines in Fouling of Polymeric and Ceramic Low-Pressure Membranes for Drinking Water Treatment.

Laurent Oligny,Pierre Bérubé,Benoit Barbeau

doi:10.3390/membranes6030038

Abstract

This study assessed the issue of membrane fouling in a Hybrid Membrane Process (HMP) due to the export of powdered activated carbon (PAC) fines from a pretreatment contactor. Two parallel pilot-scale ceramic and polymeric membranes were studied. Reversible and irreversible foulings were measured following three cleaning procedures: Physical backwashing (BW), chemically enhanced backwashing (CEB) and Clean-in-Place (CIP). The impacts on fouling of membrane type, operation flux increase and the presence/absence of the PAC pretreatment were investigated. Membranes without pretreatment were operated in parallel as a control. In addition, CIP washwaters samples were analyzed to measure organic and inorganic foulants removed from the membranes. It was observed that for the polymeric membranes, fouling generally increased with the presence of the PAC pretreatment because of the export of fines. On the contrary, the ceramic membranes were not significantly impacted by their presence. The analysis of CIP washwaters showed a greater total organic carbon (TOC) content on membranes with a PAC pretreatment while no similar conclusion could be made for inorganic foulants.

Highlights

The emergence of more restrictive drinking water regulations for the control of resistant microorganisms such as protozoan parasites has favored the use of low-pressure membranes (LPM, i.e., ultrafiltration and microfiltration) as an alternative to the conventional water treatment process
The turbidity was observed to be higher in the feed water originating from the powdered activated carbon (PAC)
Two main objectives were targeted in this study: evaluating the impact of a PAC pretreatment on membrane fouling and comparing the behaviors under identical operating conditions of two suitable membranes for the Hybrid Membrane Process (HMP)

Summary

Introduction

The emergence of more restrictive drinking water regulations for the control of resistant microorganisms such as protozoan parasites has favored the use of low-pressure membranes (LPM, i.e., ultrafiltration and microfiltration) as an alternative to the conventional water treatment process (coagulation-flocculation-filtration). Due to the limitation of LPM in addressing the removal of dissolved contaminants (e.g., algae toxins, pesticides, etc.) they are often combined with a pretreatment of powdered activated carbon (PAC). The use of PAC prior to LPM processes is often performed in combination with coagulation by continuously dosing PAC before a settler or in a direct filtration mode. For such configurations, only a fraction of the activated carbon capacity is used because of the short residence times [1]. In order to reduce operational costs and increase process performance, the combination of a high concentration PAC contactor (several grams per L) with LPM has been developed and is referred to as the Hybrid Membrane Process (HMP). While most research to date has focused on the first configuration [3,4,5,6], it has Membranes 2016, 6, 38; doi:10.3390/membranes6030038 www.mdpi.com/journal/membranes

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Conclusion