Powder Activated Carbon Pretreatment of a Microfiltration Membrane for the Treatment of Surface Water.

Yali Song,Xiaoyan Ma,Naiyun Gao,Bingzhi Dong

doi:10.3390/ijerph120911269

Abstract

This study focused on the effect of powder activated carbon (PAC) adsorption on microfiltration (MF) membrane performance. The results showed that PAC pretreatment offered high organic matter removal rates for both dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and ultraviolet absorbance at 254 nm (UV254) during 10–200 mg/L PAC dosage. The removal efficiencies of organic matter by MF membrane filtration decreased with the increase of organic matter removal rate by PAC adsorption. PAC mainly removed organic matter of about 3 kDa molecular weight (MW). MF membrane maintained more than 5 kDa MW organic matter on the membrane after PAC adsorption. The results of membrane filtration indicated that PAC pretreatment slightly promoted membrane flux, regardless of PAC dosage. It seems that the organic matter fouling membrane was concentrated in more than 3 kDa MW. PAC removed markedly less than 3 kDa MW organic matter and had less effect on more than 3 kDa organic matter. Thus, PAC cannot reduce membrane fouling.

Highlights

Membrane fouling is one of important issues of membrane application in water treatment [1,2].Membrane fouling results in a decrease of membrane flux and poor performance
Some researches indicated that natural organic matter (NOM) is main foulant responsible for membrane fouling of microfiltration (MF) or ultrafiltration (UF) in drinking water [3,4,5]
Powder activated carbon (PAC) has good adsorption performance for NOM, and it was adopted as pretreatment to reduce membrane fouling and improve membrane performance [9,10,11]

Summary

Introduction

Membrane fouling is one of important issues of membrane application in water treatment [1,2]. Membrane fouling results in a decrease of membrane flux and poor performance. Some researches indicated that natural organic matter (NOM) is main foulant responsible for membrane fouling of microfiltration (MF) or ultrafiltration (UF) in drinking water [3,4,5]. In order to reduce organic matter fouled membrane, activated carbon adsorption may be an option [6,7,8]. Powder activated carbon (PAC) is widely used as an absorbent in water treatment. PAC has good adsorption performance for NOM, and it was adopted as pretreatment to reduce membrane fouling and improve membrane performance [9,10,11].

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion