TY - JOUR
T1 - Novel approach for the analysis of bench-scale, low pressure membrane fouling in water treatment
AU - Huang, Haiou
AU - Young, Thayer
AU - Jacangelo, Joseph G.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Dr. Gary Amy and James Lozier for their insightful suggestions on the development of the UMFI concept. Gratitude is due to Dr. Jean-Philippe Croué for conducting contact angle and streaming potential measurements and Dr. NoHwa Lee for aquatic organic analyses. We thank Dr. Chandra Mysore for his participation in the overall study. Membrane manufacturers are acknowledged for providing LPHF membranes and technical support. The assistance from participating utilities is highly appreciated. This study was partially funded by the American Water Works Association Research Foundation and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Alice Fulmer served as project officer.
PY - 2009/5/15
Y1 - 2009/5/15
N2 - The concept of the unified membrane fouling index (UMFI) was introduced recently for assessing the fouling of low pressure membranes (LPM) used in water treatment. The major advantages of the UMFI over most other fouling indices are the universality (independent of filtration scale or mode) and specificity (based on the actual membrane of interest for full-scale application). This study applied the concept of the UMFI to the assessment of fouling results obtained in a bench-scale fouling study. This study was conducted with combinations of four commercially available LPMs and four natural waters (including secondary wastewater effluent) under systematically varied hydrodynamic conditions. It was found that, with the adoption of the UMFI, the fouling potential of different membrane and water combinations can be presented in a unified, concise, and quantitative way, enabling quantitative and integrated assessment of the fouling data and their relationships with different potential fouling factors. Expansion of the UMFI concept to other studies is anticipated to assist in the integration of the vast amount of bench-scale fouling results obtained with different LPMs; this integration is crucial to the mechanistic understanding of LPM fouling.
AB - The concept of the unified membrane fouling index (UMFI) was introduced recently for assessing the fouling of low pressure membranes (LPM) used in water treatment. The major advantages of the UMFI over most other fouling indices are the universality (independent of filtration scale or mode) and specificity (based on the actual membrane of interest for full-scale application). This study applied the concept of the UMFI to the assessment of fouling results obtained in a bench-scale fouling study. This study was conducted with combinations of four commercially available LPMs and four natural waters (including secondary wastewater effluent) under systematically varied hydrodynamic conditions. It was found that, with the adoption of the UMFI, the fouling potential of different membrane and water combinations can be presented in a unified, concise, and quantitative way, enabling quantitative and integrated assessment of the fouling data and their relationships with different potential fouling factors. Expansion of the UMFI concept to other studies is anticipated to assist in the integration of the vast amount of bench-scale fouling results obtained with different LPMs; this integration is crucial to the mechanistic understanding of LPM fouling.
KW - Irreversible fouling
KW - Low pressure membrane
KW - Unified membrane fouling index
KW - Water treatment
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U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2009.01.049
DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2009.01.049
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:64049116597
SN - 0376-7388
VL - 334
SP - 1
EP - 8
JO - Journal of Membrane Science
JF - Journal of Membrane Science
IS - 1-2
ER -