Surface water biopolymer fractionation for fouling mitigation in low-pressure membranes

Abstract

With the widespread application of liquid chromatography with organic carbon detection (LC-OCD) to investigate membrane fouling in low-pressure membranes such as microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF), membrane fouling by macromolecular hydrophilic biopolymer fraction has been recognized. In this study, a drinking water source was intensively investigated over 16 months. Membrane filtration using hollow-fiber MF membranes was carried out in constant flux mode with periodic backwashing, and two pretreatments (aluminum coagulation and anion exchange) were examined in terms of biopolymer removal and fouling mitigation. Higher biopolymer removal rates achieved by anion exchange than coagulation did not cause better control of membrane fouling in MF. Coagulation and anion exchange removed different types of biopolymers, which implied diversity in the biopolymer fraction. A modified set-up of LC-OCD analysis in which two different columns were sequentially connected was examined. It was demonstrated that the biopolymer fraction detected as a single peak with molecular weight of > 10,000 Da with the conventional LC-OCD set-up comprised of molecules with a variety of molecular weights including > 1,000,000 Da. It was found that coagulation removed large-size biopolymers with higher fouling potentials; while anion exchange preferentially removed small-size biopolymers with lower fouling potential. Concentration of large-size biopolymers in the feed water collected on different dates correlated with the degree of membrane fouling. In an attempt to generalize the conclusion drawn from the experiments using the specific drinking water source, batch MF tests filtering biopolymers isolated from different drinking water sources were also carried out. Importance of the large-size biopolymer fraction in the evolution of membrane fouling was also suggested with different drinking water sources.