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Biofouling in ultrafiltration process for drinking water treatment and its control by chlorinated-water and pure
Senlin Shao1, Yue Wang2, Danting Shi3
1School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei 430072, PR China; Engineering Research Center of Urban Disasters Prevention and Fire Rescue Technology of Hubei Province, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei 430072, PR China.
Abstract:
We investigated biofouling in ultrafiltration (UF) for drinking water treatment and its control by backwashing with chlorinated-water or pure water. By using sodium azide to suppress biological growth, the relative contribution of biofouling to total fouling was estimated, and its value (5.3-56.0%) varied with the feed water, and increased with the increases of filtration time and membrane flux. The biofouling layer could partially remove biodegradable organic matter and ammonia (32.9-74.2%). Backwashing using chlorinated-water partly inactivated the microorganisms (23.8%) but increased the content of extracellular polymeric substances (7.7%) in the biofouling layer. In contrast, backwashing using pure water led to a looser and more porous fouling layer according to optical coherence tomography observation. Consequently, the latter was more effective in reducing fouling resistance (33.41% reduction) compared to backwashing by chlorinated-water (8.6%). These findings reveal the critical roles of biofouling in pollutants removal in addition to membrane permeability, which has important implications for addressing seasonal ammonia pollution.
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