Novel pre-treatment method for seawater reverse osmosis: Fibre media filtration

A high rate fibre filter was used as a pre-treatment to seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) to reduce membrane fouling. Seawater was drawn from Chowder Bay where the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, Australia is located. A lab-scale fibre filter with a height of 1000 mm and a diameter of 30 mm was us...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Desalination 2010-01, Vol.250 (2), p.557-561
Main Authors: Lee, J.J., Johir, M.A.H., Chinu, K.H., Shon, H.K., Vigneswaran, S., Kandasamy, J., Kim, C.W., Shaw, K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Chemical engineering
Desalination
Exact sciences and technology
Fibre
Fibre media filtration
Filtration
Fouling
Fouling index
Hydrodynamics of contact apparatus
Liquid-liquid and fluid-solid mechanical separations
Marine
Membrane separation (reverse osmosis, dialysis...)
MFI
Molecular weight distribution
Natural water pollution
Organic matter
Packing density
Pollution
Pre-treatment
Reverse osmosis
Sea water
Seawaters, estuaries
Turbidity
Water treatment and pollution
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Summary:A high rate fibre filter was used as a pre-treatment to seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) to reduce membrane fouling. Seawater was drawn from Chowder Bay where the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, Australia is located. A lab-scale fibre filter with a height of 1000 mm and a diameter of 30 mm was used in conjunction with in-line coagulation. The effect of operating the fibre filter with different packing densities (105, 115 kg/m 3) and filtration velocities (40, 60 m/h) was investigated in terms of silt density index (SDI 10), modified fouling index (MFI), pressure drop (Δ P), turbidity and molecular weight distribution (MWD). The use of in-line coagulation improved the performance of fibre filter as measured by the MFI and SDI. Regardless of filtration velocity and packing density the MFI and SDI 10 values remained low as did the turbidity until the end of the filtration run. The MWD analysis showed the removal efficiencies of organic materials like biopolymers, fulvic acids, low MW acids for even experiments with the highest filtration velocity (60 m/h) and lowest packing density (105 kg/m 3). This pre-treatment has a small foot print as it has the capacity of operating at a very high filtration velocity.
ISSN:0011-9164
1873-4464
DOI:10.1016/j.desal.2009.09.023