Influence of operating conditions on ceramic ultrafiltration membrane performance when treating textile effluents

This work studies the performance of three commercial ceramic ultrafiltration membranes (ZrO(2)-TiO(2)) treating raw effluent from a textile industry. The effect of crossflow velocity at 3, 4 and 5 m s(-1) as well as membrane characteristics, such as molecular weight cut-off (30, 50 and 150 kDa), on process performance were studied. Experiments were carried out in concentration mode in order to observe the effect of volume reduction factor simultaneously. Results showed a combined influence of both crossflow velocity and molecular weight cut-off on flux performance. TOC and COD removals up to 70% and 84% respectively were reached. On the other hand, almost complete color (>97%) and turbidity (>99%) removals were achieved for all the membranes and operating conditions.     

Effect of coagulation treatment on antifouling properties of PVC nanocomposite membrane in a submerged membrane system for water treatment

A submerged membrane system was used in this work to investigate the effect of the polyaluminum chloride (PAC) coagulant on the antifouling performance of the polyvinyl chloride/alumina (PVC/Al₂O₃) nanocomposite membrane. The prepared nanocomposite membranes were characterized with field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), atomic force microscopy, contact angle, porosity measurement, and pure water flux. The results revealed that the membrane containing Al₂O₃ nanoparticles (the mass ratio of PVC to Al₂O₃ was 98.5/1.5) had a higher hydrophilicity, porosity, and pure water flux than other membranes. The FE-SEM images showed that when Al₂O₃ nanoparticles were present in the PVC membrane, large pores and macrovoids formed on the surface and cross-section of the membrane. The fouling behavior of membranes was investigated through the filtration of humic acid (HA) solution with and without the PAC coagulant. Without PAC addition, the PVC/Al₂O₃ membrane significantly decreased the irreversible fouling ratio from 60.7% to 19.4% and showed a high HA removal efficiency of approximately 90.5%. The Hermia model confirmed that the cake formation mechanism best described the experimental data for the neat PVC and nanocomposite membranes with the presence and absence of the PAC coagulant. This confirms that the PAC coagulant can significantly mitigate fouling and improve HA removal in the submerged membrane system.     

Pressure retarded osmosis for energy production: membrane materials and operating conditions

Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is a novel membrane process to produce energy. PRO has the potential to convert the osmotic pressure difference between fresh water (i.e. river water) and seawater to electricity. Moreover, it can recover energy from highly concentrated brine in seawater desalination. Nevertheless, relatively little research has been undertaken for fundamental understanding of the PRO process. In this study, the characteristics of the PRO process were examined using a proof-of-concept device. Forward osmosis (FO), reverse osmosis (RO), and nanofiltration (NF) membranes were compared in terms of flux rate and concentration polarization ratio. The results indicated that the theoretical energy production by PRO depends on the membrane type as well as operating conditions (i.e. back pressure). The FO membrane had the highest energy efficiency while the NF membrane had the lowest efficiency. However, the energy production rate was low due to high internal concentration polarization (ICP) in the PRO membrane. This finding suggests that the control of the ICP is essential for practical application of PRO for energy production.     

Treatment of dairy wastewater by two-stage membrane operation with ultrafiltration and nanofiltration

Treatment of dairy wastewater by a two-stage membrane process with ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) was investigated. The results showed that the flux of UF was higher at pH = 4.6 than that at pH = 8 because the resistance of the fouling membrane was lower at the isoelectric point of protein (pH = 4.6) in UF operation. Protein rejection exceeded 99% by UF + NF operation. Lactose rejections were 98.5 and 54% for UF + NF90 and UF + NF270 respectively. Experiments on membrane cleaning showed that the fouling layer of UF and NF was mainly protein and casein which could be removed by aqueous NaOH with pH = 10. The result of long-term experiments showed that the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of NF90 permeates was below 70 mg/L consistently and the wastewater could be concentrated to 24% by a two-stage membrane process.     

纳滤膜对饮用水中可同化有机碳的去除效果

考察了纳滤膜对饮用水中有机物和可同化有机碳(AOC)的去除效果。对纳滤膜进水和出水进行了AOC的相对分子质量分布测定,分析AOC和有机物相对分子质量分布间的关系,探讨纳滤膜去除AOC的机理。结果表明,纳滤膜能有效地去除TOC和UV254,去除率均高达95%以上;在不同季节,自来水中AOC浓度有显著的变化,其中AOCP17约占AOC总量的60%~70%;纳滤膜对饮用水中AOC的去除率约为60%,其去除效果受到筛分效应和电荷效应的双重影响。AOC多与相对分子质量小于1000的有机物有关。     

Effect of operating conditions and reactor configuration on efficiency of full-scale biogas plants.

A study on 18 full-scale centralized biogas plants was carried out in order to find significant operational factors influencing productivity and stability of the plants. It was found that the most plants were operating relatively stable with volatile fatty acids (VFA) concentration below 1.5 g/l. VFA concentration increase was observed in occasions with dramatic overloading or other disturbances such as operational temperature changes. Ammonia was found to be a significant factor for stability. A correlation between increased residual biogas production and high ammonia was found. When ammonia was higher than approx. 4g-N/l the degradation efficiency of the plant decreased and as a consequence, the residual methane potential was high. Decrease of the residual methane potential with increasing hydraulic retention time was found. Digestion temperature was very important for effective post-digestion. Post-digestion for recovering the residual methane potential at temperatures below 15 degrees C was very inefficient.     

Post-treatment of biologically treated wastewater of agrochemical industry by sulfated chitosan composite nanofiltration membrane

The objective of this study is to treat the biologically treated wastewater using sulfated chitosan/ polyacrylonitrile (PAN) composite nanofiltration (NF) membrane to improve agrochemical industry wastewater quality for reuse. Although biological treatment is quite efficient, the wastewater does not meet the reuse criteria. Hence, further treatment to improve the water quality is investigated. Sulfated chitosan composite NF membranes, having a PAN ultrafiltration membrane as the substrate, are prepared by coating and cross-linking methods. The effects of membrane preparation conditions on the rejection and permeation performance of the membranes are studied. The new membranes are characterized by NMR and scanning electron micrograph. Wastewater from agrochemical industry contains high concentrations of organic matter, color, heavy metals and other toxic substances. The operating variables studied are applied pressure (3-15 atm) and feed flowrate (4-16 L/min). It is found that the observed rejection (R(o)) increases with increase in feed pressure at constant feed flowrate. The rejection of cations follows the sequence: R(o)(Zn2+) > R(o)(Ni2+) > R(o)(CU2+) > R(o)(Cd2+) for wastewater. It is observed that the order of solute rejection sequence is inversely proportional to the diffusion coefficients.     

Comparison of treatment efficiency of submerged nanofiltration membrane bioreactors using cellulose triacetate and polyamide membrane.

This study evaluates the performance of nanofiltration membrane bioreactor (NF MBR) systems using cellulose triacetate (CA) and polyamide (PA) membranes. The results indicated that both NF membranes could produce high quality permeate in the submerged NF MBR system. In addition, hollow fiber CA membranes exhibited the capability of higher permeate productivity than PA membranes. However, to obtain high quality permeate for a long-term operation, CA membranes should be maintained using an appropriate method, such as chlorine disinfection, in order to control the membrane biodegradation. The results demonstrated that PA membranes were capable of producing higher quality permeate for a long period than CA membranes. In order to enhance the practicability of PA membranes in submerged NF MBR systems, it is required that the membranes should have the lowest possible intrinsic salt rejection.     

Preparation of three-bore hollow fiber charged nanofiltration membrane for separation of organics and salts

Three-bore hollow fiber charged nanofiltration (NF) membrane was prepared by interfacial polymerization (IP). The results showed that the flux and rejection of NF membrane prepared in this study increased with the increasing in the operating pressure. The water flux decreased and rejection for obvious dyes increased as the solute concentration increased. The separation factor for mixture of Xylenol orange/NaCl decreased when NaCl concentration in solution increased and could reach to as high as 18. In addition, three-bore hollow fiber charged nanofiltration membrane prepared in this study has excellent stability for strong acid (pH = 3), strong alkali (pH = 11) and high temperature solution (80 °C).     

Effect of a suspended carrier on membrane fouling in a submerged membrane bioreactor.

In an attempt at membrane fouling control, a kind of cylindrical plastic suspended carrier was added in a submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR) and its effect was investigated in this study. According to the transmembrane pressure (TMP) profiles and the sludge characteristics in comparative runs with and without suspended carriers, it was found that the suspended carriers added in SMBR had two effects on membrane fouling: one was the positive effect of mechanically scouring the membrane surface and the other was the negative effect of breaking up sludge flocs. Sludge particle size distribution change was mainly responsible. It was suggested to apply the suspended carrier at higher MLSS concentration and lower carrier dose based on the consideration for retarding sludge breakage caused by the carrier. The experiment was conducted under higher MLSS (8 gL(-1)) and lower carrier dose (carrier volume/total volume = 10/). The TMP increase was effectively retarded by added suspended carriers compared to the system without addition of the carriers. The effect of suspended carriers on membrane fouling at high MLSS concentration was verified.     

锰砂/石英砂滤池与纳滤膜组合工艺去除水中砷的研究

采用锰砂/石英砂滤池与纳滤膜组合工艺处理含砷水,考察锰砂/石英砂、纳滤膜(NF90、HL)、锰砂/石英砂滤池与纳滤膜组合工艺对水中砷的去除效果.结果表明,三价砷(As(Ⅲ))和五价砷(As(Ⅴ))经锰砂/石英砂过滤后能得到很好的去除,原水砷浓度250 μg/L,出水砷浓度小于50μg/L;纳滤膜对五价砷(As(Ⅴ))的去除能力很高,能达到90%以上,但是对三价砷(As(Ⅲ))的去除率不理想,为40%～60%;锰砂/石英砂复合滤池与纳滤膜组合工艺对水中砷有很好的去除效果,出水砷浓度均小于10μg/L,是理想的饮用水除砷方法.     

Influence of organic and colloidal fouling on the removal of sulphamethoxazole by nanofiltration membranes.

This study investigated the effects of organic and colloidal fouling on the removal of a representative micropollutant sulphamethoxazole by two commercially available NF membranes. Alginate, bovine serum albumin and colloidal silica were selected as model foulants to simulate hydrophilic and hydrophobic organic fractions, and colloidal matter that are often found in treated effluent and surface water. Membrane fouling was related to the membrane and foulant characteristics and subsequently the separation behaviour of the micropollutant sulphamethoxazole under different solution pH. On the basis of these results, it was confirmed that membrane fouling is strongly dependent on both the foulant and membrane characteristics. The complex relationship among retention mechanisms, fouling mechanisms and the effects of fouling on retention was systematically delineated. Of the three model foulants selected for this study, colloidal fouling resulted in the most significant reduction in retention of sulphamethoxazole as well as inorganic salts, while flux decline as a result of colloidal fouling was quite moderate. Reduction in retention caused by fouling was attributed to a phenomenon known as cake-enhance concentration polarisation, which was a predominant mechanism of colloidal fouling. In addition, the reported results suggested that the effect of fouling on retention is also membrane pore size dependent.     

Evaluation of a long-term operation of a submerged nanofiltration membrane bioreactor (NF MBR) for advanced wastewater treatment.

Nanofiltration (NF) is considered as one of the most promising separation technologies to obtain a very good-quality permeate in water and wastewater treatment. A submerged NF membrane bioreactor (NF MBR) using polyamide membranes was tested for a long-term operation and the performance of the NF MBR was compared with that of a microfiltration MBR (MF MBR). Total organic carbon (TOC) concentration in the permeate of the NF MBR ranged from 0.5 to 2.0 mg/L, whereas that of the MF MBR showed an average of 5 mg/L. This could be explained by the tightness of the NF membrane. Although the concentration of organic matter in the supernatant of the NF MBR was higher than that in the permeate due to high rejection by the NF membrane, the NF MBR showed excellent treatment efficiency and satisfactory operational stability for a long-term operation.     

操作条件对浸没式超滤膜污染影响的中试研究

采用混凝—沉淀—浸没式超滤工艺进行了处理滦河原水的中试研究,重点考察气水比、通量以及排泥方式对膜污染的影响。结果表明,在低温低浊期采用8:1～10:1的气水比、25L/(m2.h)的通量、每天排泥的工况能很好地延缓膜污染,同时在排泥前空曝气10min对膜污染也有一定的延缓作用。     

Effect of Fenton's treatment on the biodegradability of chromium-complex azo dyes.

Pretreatment of an acid dyebath effluent bearing a new generation chromium complex azo dyestuff (C0 = 350 mg/L) with Fenton's reagent was investigated. Preliminary optimisation (baseline) experiments were conducted to determine the Fe2+, H2O2 concentrations and pH required to the highest possible COD and colour removals. Kinetic studies were carried out at varying temperatures (20 degrees C < T < 70 degrees C) to establish a relationship between COD abatement and H2O2 consumption. The activation energy found for catalytic H2O2 decomposition (Ea = 9.8 kJ/mol) appeared to be significantly less than that of fermentative (Ea = 23 kJ/mol) and of thermal (Ea = 76 kJ/mol) H2O2 decomposition, implying that H2O2 decomposition during the Fenton's reaction occurs more spontaneously. The experimental studies indicated that approximately 30% COD and complete colour removal could be achieved under optimised Fenton pretreatment conditions (Fe2+ = 2 mM; H2O2 = 30 mM; pH = 3; at T = 60 degrees C). Long-term activated sludge experiments revealed that although the raw and pretreated acid dyebath effluent contained practically the same amount of "readily biodegradable" COD (inert COD fraction < or = 10%), biodegradation of the chemically pretreated acid dye effluent proceeded appreciably faster than that of the untreated acid dyebath effluent.     

Behavior of the concrete dam of the Ust-Ilim hydroelectric station under operating conditions

Power Technology and Engineering -