Biological fouling, also known as biofouling, still remains as the top unsolved problem in the water treatment industry with reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes. It is reported that 70% of the plants in Middle East and 83% of surface water plants in USA suffer from some degree of biofouling. Biofouling happens when bacteria secrete exopolymeric substances, which adhere on the membrane and feed spacer, blocking the water flow. This leads to an increase in feed pressure, which is addressed through chemical cleanings (CIP). Ultimately, the membrane suffers and eventually effect membrane lifetime, thus affecting the plant availability and leading to a total cost of water increase up to 6%. The DuPont™ B-Free™ pre-treatment is a novel vessel-based media technology that efficiently mitigates the effects of biofouling in Reverse Osmosis systems. B-Free technology works under three main mechanisms which are smartly combined to provide a biostatic environment for downstream RO operations. The first one relies on providing phosphate reduction, then it uses a chemical barrier as safeguard protecting the system from the start-up, and finally it retains particles and bacteria to ensure no particle migration. Field validation in a biofouling environment equipped with a B-Free column demonstrated that biofouling is prevented in RO during a 35 days test and 8 chemical cleanings are avoided.

DuPont™ B-Free™: The biofouling prevention technology

ACS Fall 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.