TY - JOUR
T1 - Membrane fouling and anti-fouling strategies using RO retentate from a municipal water recycling plant as the feed for osmotic power generation
AU - Chen, Si Cong
AU - Amy, Gary L.
AU - Chung, Neal Tai-Shung
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: This research is supported by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister's Office, Singapore under its Competitive Research Program (CRP) entitled "Advanced FO Membranes and Membrane Systems for Wastewater Treatment, Water Reuse and Seawater Desalination" (grant numbers: R-279-000-336-281 and R-278-000-339-281) and by the Environment & Water Industry Programme Office (EWI) of the PUB under the project titled "Membrane Development for Osmotic Power Generation, Part 1. Materials Development and Membrane Fabrication" (grant number: R-279-000-381-279). The author, Si Cong Chen, would also thank the NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences & Engineering for the financial support of her PhD study. Special tanks will be given to Mr Chun Feng Wan, Dr Tao Cai, and Mr Yong Liu for their help.
PY - 2015/10/25
Y1 - 2015/10/25
N2 - RO retentate from a municipal water recycling plant is considered as a potential feed stream for osmotic power generation in this paper. The feasibility of using RO retentate from a municipal water recycling plant was examined from two aspects: (a) the membrane fouling propensity of RO retentate, and (b) the efficacy of anti-fouling strategies. The membranes used in this study were the inner selective thin film composite polyethersulfone (TFC/PES) hollow fiber membranes, which possessed a high water permeability and good mechanical strength. Scaling by phosphate salts was found to be one possible inorganic fouling on the innermost layer of the PES membrane, whereas silica fouling was observed to be the governing fouling on the outmost surface of the PES membrane. Two anti-fouling pretreatments, i.e., pH adjustment and anti-scalant pre-treatment for the feed stream, were studied and found to be straightforward and effective. Using RO retentate at pH 7.2 as the feed and 1 M NaCl as the draw solution, the average power density was 7.3 W/m at 20 bar. The average power density increased to 12.6 W/m by modifying RO retentate with an initial pH value of 5.5 using HCl and to 13.4 W/m by adding 1.1 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). Moreover, the flux recovery of the fouled membranes, without the indicated pretreatments, reached 84.9% using deionized (DI) water flushing and 95.0% using air bubbling under a high crossflow velocity of 23.3 cm/s (Re = 2497) for 30 min. After pretreatment by pH adjustment, the flux recovery increased to 94.6% by DI water flushing and 100.0% by air bubbling. After pretreatment by adding 1.1 mM EDTA into RO retentate, flux was almost fully restored by physical cleaning by DI water flushing and air bubbling. These results provide insight into developing an effective pretreatment by either pH adjustment or EDTA addition before PRO and physical cleaning methods by DI water flushing and air bubbling for membrane used in osmotic power generation.
AB - RO retentate from a municipal water recycling plant is considered as a potential feed stream for osmotic power generation in this paper. The feasibility of using RO retentate from a municipal water recycling plant was examined from two aspects: (a) the membrane fouling propensity of RO retentate, and (b) the efficacy of anti-fouling strategies. The membranes used in this study were the inner selective thin film composite polyethersulfone (TFC/PES) hollow fiber membranes, which possessed a high water permeability and good mechanical strength. Scaling by phosphate salts was found to be one possible inorganic fouling on the innermost layer of the PES membrane, whereas silica fouling was observed to be the governing fouling on the outmost surface of the PES membrane. Two anti-fouling pretreatments, i.e., pH adjustment and anti-scalant pre-treatment for the feed stream, were studied and found to be straightforward and effective. Using RO retentate at pH 7.2 as the feed and 1 M NaCl as the draw solution, the average power density was 7.3 W/m at 20 bar. The average power density increased to 12.6 W/m by modifying RO retentate with an initial pH value of 5.5 using HCl and to 13.4 W/m by adding 1.1 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). Moreover, the flux recovery of the fouled membranes, without the indicated pretreatments, reached 84.9% using deionized (DI) water flushing and 95.0% using air bubbling under a high crossflow velocity of 23.3 cm/s (Re = 2497) for 30 min. After pretreatment by pH adjustment, the flux recovery increased to 94.6% by DI water flushing and 100.0% by air bubbling. After pretreatment by adding 1.1 mM EDTA into RO retentate, flux was almost fully restored by physical cleaning by DI water flushing and air bubbling. These results provide insight into developing an effective pretreatment by either pH adjustment or EDTA addition before PRO and physical cleaning methods by DI water flushing and air bubbling for membrane used in osmotic power generation.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/622310
UR - https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0043135415302736
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84944745185&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.watres.2015.10.008
DO - 10.1016/j.watres.2015.10.008
M3 - Article
C2 - 26492341
SN - 0043-1354
VL - 88
SP - 144
EP - 155
JO - Water Research
JF - Water Research
ER -
