Influence of flocs breakage process on membrane fouling in coagulation/ultrafiltration process—Effect of additional coagulant of poly-aluminum chloride and polyacrylamide

Abstract

The additional coagulant dosing strategy was applied in a coagulation–ultrafiltration (UF) process for treatment of drinking water. When poly-aluminum chloride (PACl) dose was set as the optimal coagulant dosage (alum 0.15mM), the additional PACl and polyacrylamide (PAM) were added after breakage to further examine their benefits and impact on membrane fouling. The average size of flocs re-formed with additional non-ionic PAM was larger than that of additional PACl. The fractal dimension of flocs (dpf) was proved to play an important role on membrane fouling. Broken flocs re-formed with additional non-ionic PAM has more convoluted boundaries and lower effective density than the one with additional PACl, which is available to form loose and porosity cake layer on surface of membrane. Microscopic observations of membrane surface demonstrated that there was obvious correlation between the structure of cake layer and the fractal dimension of flocs. Besides, reversible fouling (RF) and irreversible fouling (IF) were also investigated in our study. The additional PACl dosing could lower membrane fouling, but irreversible fouling did not reduce because much more positive charged of flocs may adsorb on the surface of membrane under electrostatic attraction. As for non-ionic PAM, both of RF and IF were simultaneously decreased. As a result, the structural characteristics and surface electrical of flocs are two main mechanisms caused irreversible fouling.