Removal of Bacteria and Organic Carbon by an Integrated Ultrafiltration—Nanofiltration Desalination Pilot Plant
Type
ArticleKAUST Department
Water Desalination and Reuse Research Center (WDRC)Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) Division
Environmental Science and Engineering Program
Chemical Engineering Program
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
Bioscience Program
KAUST Grant Number
BAS/1/1061-01-01Date
2020-09-04Submitted Date
2020-06-17Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/665054
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Fouling caused by organic matter and bacteria remains a significant challenge for the membrane-based desalination industry. Fouling decreases the permeate quality and membrane performance and also increases energy demands. Here, we quantified the amount of organic matter and bacteria at several stages along the water-treatment train of an integrated ultrafiltration–nanofiltration seawater treatment pilot plant. We quantified the organic matter, in terms of Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and Assimilable Organic Carbon (AOC), and evaluated its composition using Liquid Chromatography for Organic Carbon Detection (LC-OCD). The bacterial cells were counted using Bactiquant. We found that ultrafiltration (UF) was effective at removing bacterial cells (99.7%) but not TOC. By contrast, nanofiltration (NF) successfully removed both TOC (95%) and bacterial cells. However, the NF permeate showed higher amounts of AOC than seawater. LC-OCD analysis suggested that the AOC was mostly composed of low molecular weight neutral substances. Furthermore, we found that the cleaning of the UF membrane using chemically enhanced backwash reduced the amount of AOC released into the UF permeate. By implementing the cleaning-in-place of the NF membrane, the pressure drop was restored to the normal level. Our results show that the UF and NF membrane cleaning regimes investigated in this study improved membrane performance. However, AOC remained the hardest-to-treat fraction of organic carbon. AOC should, therefore, be monitored closely and regularly to mitigate biofouling in downstream processes.Citation
Rehman, Z. U., Khojah, B., Leiknes, T., Alsogair, S., & Alsomali, M. (2020). Removal of Bacteria and Organic Carbon by an Integrated Ultrafiltration—Nanofiltration Desalination Pilot Plant. Membranes, 10(9), 223. doi:10.3390/membranes10090223Sponsors
This work was supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) under award number BAS/1/1061-01-01.Publisher
MDPI AGJournal
MembranesPubMed ID
32899597Additional Links
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0375/10/9/223ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.3390/membranes10090223
Scopus Count
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.
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