Loading…
Biofouling in ultrafiltration process for drinking water treatment and its control by chlorinated-water and pure water backwashing
We investigated biofouling in ultrafiltration (UF) for drinking water treatment and its control by backwashing with chlorinated-water or pure water. By using sodium azide to suppress biological growth, the relative contribution of biofouling to total fouling was estimated, and its value (5.3–56.0%)...
Saved in:
Published in: | The Science of the total environment 2018-12, Vol.644, p.306-314 |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that this one cites Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
Summary: | We investigated biofouling in ultrafiltration (UF) for drinking water treatment and its control by backwashing with chlorinated-water or pure water. By using sodium azide to suppress biological growth, the relative contribution of biofouling to total fouling was estimated, and its value (5.3–56.0%) varied with the feed water, and increased with the increases of filtration time and membrane flux. The biofouling layer could partially remove biodegradable organic matter and ammonia (32.9–74.2%). Backwashing using chlorinated-water partly inactivated the microorganisms (23.8%) but increased the content of extracellular polymeric substances (7.7%) in the biofouling layer. In contrast, backwashing using pure water led to a looser and more porous fouling layer according to optical coherence tomography observation. Consequently, the latter was more effective in reducing fouling resistance (33.41% reduction) compared to backwashing by chlorinated-water (8.6%). These findings reveal the critical roles of biofouling in pollutants removal in addition to membrane permeability, which has important implications for addressing seasonal ammonia pollution.
[Display omitted]
•Biofouling accounted for 5.3–56.0% of the total fouling in the UF process for drinking water treatment.•Biofouling layer could partially remove biodegradable organic matter and ammonia.•Backwashing with pure water is an effective way for biofouling control. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 0048-9697 1879-1026 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.06.220 |