The organic matters in wastewater effluent (WWE) have a high potential of the membrane fouling during the water reuse process. In this study, physical (adsorption) and chemical (ozonation) were applied to control the organic foulants, and the fouling propensities are tested according to the type of the residual organic fractions. In case of the adsorption, MWNTs was more effectively adsorbed higher molecular weight (&gt; 15k Da) biopolymers such as aromatic protein groups (AP) and soluble microbial by-products (SMPs), while the GAC showed non-selective removal of organic matters. Meanwhile, the ozonation could efficiently break down high molecular weight compounds into lower molecular weight matters, but the composition was not significantly changed in fluorescent excitation-emission matrix (FEEM). In the RO fouling tests of untreated and treated samples at the same organic concentration (Fig. 1), the MWNT-treated sample, which selectively removed the AP and SMP, has shown the dramatically lower flux decline than that of GAC-, and ozone-treated samples (5%, 26%, and 19% respectively, after 24 hr). It implied that biopolymers such as AP and SMP played major role during RO membrane fouling, therefore, the pretreatment process should be designed to minimize the amount of AP and SMP to mitigate the membrane fouling.

Impact of physical and chemical pretreatment to RO fouling during the water reuse

2019 Fall National Meeting

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