Performance comparison and pretreatment evaluation of three water treatment membrane pilot plants treating low turbidity water

Abstract

The performance of three different low-pressure water treatment membrane pilot plants was evaluated on a low-turbidity, low-colour water in British Columbia. All membrane units were hollow-fibre, hydrophilic membranes with nominal pore sizes of 0.01 to 0.2 µm. In addition to finished water quality, specific flux of each membrane was used to compare the performance of the three membrane units. The effect of feed pretreatment on the performance of the membranes and removal of disinfection byproduct (DBP) precursors was evaluated using chemical coagulation and powdered activated carbon (PAC) addition. Chemical coagulation proved to be very effective in removing DPB precursors and reducing the rate of membrane fouling. Powdered activated carbon addition, on the other hand, resulted in moderate removal of DBP precursors but increased the rate of membrane fouling. The nature and causes of membrane fouling as well as the impact of pretreatment methods on membrane fouling are discussed. Key words: ultrafiltration, microfiltration, coagulation, PAC, fouling, hollow fibre membranes, pretreatment, water treatment.