Abstract
Ultra-filtration technology has been increasingly used in drinking water treatment due to improvements in membrane performance and lowering of costs. However, membrane fouling is the main limitation in the application of ultra-filtration technology. In this study, we investigated the impact of four different pre-treatments: Coagulation, adsorption, coagulation followed by adsorption (C-A), and simultaneous coagulation and adsorption (C+A), on membrane fouling and natural organic matter removal efficiency. The results showed that adsorption process required a large amount of adsorbent and formed a dense cake layer on the membrane surface leading to severe membrane fouling. Compared to adsorption alone, the coagulation and C-A processes decreased the transmembrane pressure by 4.9 kPa. It was due to less accumulation of particles on the membrane surface. As for water quality, the C-A ultra-filtration process achieved the highest removal efficiencies of natural organic matter and disinfection by-product precursors. Therefore, the addition of adsorbent after coagulation is a potentially important approach for alleviating ultra-filtration membrane fouling and enhancing treatment performance.
Highlights
Ultra-filtration (UF) has been increasingly used in water treatment because of its high treatment efficiency in terms of particle and microorganism removal [1,2]
Four kinds of pre-treatment were investigated: coagulation (C), adsorption (A), coagulation followed by adsorption (C-A), and simultaneous coagulation and adsorption (C + A)
The removal efficiency of Natural organic matter (NOM) in water was investigated in four kinds of pre-treatments, including coagulation (C), adsorption (A), coagulation followed by adsorption (C-A), and simultaneous coagulation and adsorption (C + A)
Summary
Ultra-filtration (UF) has been increasingly used in water treatment because of its high treatment efficiency in terms of particle and microorganism removal [1,2]. As the main limitation to the widespread application of UF, membrane fouling significantly increases the transmembrane pressure (TMP) and reduce membrane life [3]. Many researchers have investigated different types of pre-treatment technologies to remove pollutants from feed water and prevent membrane fouling, such as pre-coagulation, pre-adsorption, pre-filtration, and pre-oxidation [8]. Among these technologies, chemical coagulation has been shown to be an effective and low-cost pre-treatment [9]. Lin et al [13] revealed that PAC cannot remove the high molecular weight NOM, which caused the membrane fouling of hydrophobic
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