Impact of pretreatment on RO membrane organic fouling: composition and adhesion of tertiary wastewater effluent organic matter

Siebdrath, Nadine; Skibinski, Bertram; Abraham, Shiju; Bernstein, Roy; Berger, Robert; Stein, Noa; Kaufman, Yair; Lerch, André; Herzberg, Moshe

doi:10.1039/d0ew01098g

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…A small fraction of BP (3%) was also observed. The largest EfOM fraction in the TE was HS (i.e., 21.4 mg/L), which was also reported by Siebdrath et al (2021).…”

Section: Characterisation Of Organic Foulants By Lc-ocdsupporting

confidence: 76%

Membrane distillation of wastewater: comparison of model and real organics

Habib,

Phuong Do,

Asif

et al. 2024

Water Science &Amp; Technology

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Fouling behaviour in membrane distillation (MD) processes plays a crucial role in determining their widespread acceptability. Most studies have primarily focused on model organic foulants, such as humic acid (HA) and sodium alginate (SA). This study investigates the fouling of a polytetrafluoroethylene membrane in a direct contact MD (DCMD) using model organics (i.e., HA and SA) and real wastewater. The results indicated that the flux decline (5–60%) was only observed during the initial phase of the operation with model organic foulants. In contrast, real wastewater caused a gradual decline in flux throughout the experiment in both the concentrate (40%) and continuous (90%) modes. The study also found significant differences in the fouling layer morphology, composition, and hydrophobicity between the model organic foulants and real wastewater. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy findings demonstrated that the fouling layer formed by real wastewater varied significantly from model organics, which primarily comprised of protein-like and polysaccharide-like functional groups. Finally, liquid chromatography–organic carbon detection revealed that the fouling layer of the MD membrane with real wastewater was composed of 40.7% hydrophobic and 59.3% hydrophilic organics. This study suggests that model organics may not accurately reflect real wastewater fouling.

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“…A small fraction of BP (3%) was also observed. The largest EfOM fraction in the TE was HS (i.e., 21.4 mg/L), which was also reported by Siebdrath et al (2021).…”

Section: Characterisation Of Organic Foulants By Lc-ocdsupporting

confidence: 76%

Membrane distillation of wastewater: comparison of model and real organics

Habib,

Phuong Do,

Asif

et al. 2024

Water Science &Amp; Technology

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“…Similar to the finding that HPON and TPIN fractions contain high protein/humic acid ratios (Table S4), Ding et al reported that protein-like components make a greater contribution to RO flux reduction than do humic-like components. Our previous study found that low-molecular-weight neutral and biopolymer fractions strongly affect RO fouling, with a reduction in their abundance leading to reduced fouling. HPIB, which adhered as strongly to the polyamide layer in the LSPR experiments as the EfOM mix and HPOA fractions, but less strongly than the neutral fractions, contained only protein-like components 2, 4, and 5, and no humic-like components.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Few studies have considered the impact of EfOM on RO membrane fouling, and analyses of the effects of EfOM fractions on the rate and extent of membrane fouling have yielded conflicting results. For example, some studies have found the non-humic fraction of dissolved OM, including low-aromatic hydrophilic neutrals, macromolecules, and fatty acids, to be the main contributor to irreversible membrane fouling. − In contrast, other studies have found hydrophobic compounds such as humic substances to be the main foulants adsorbed on membranes through hydrophobic interaction, particularly with relatively hydrophobic membranes such as thin-film cross-linked aromatic polyamides. ,, Our previous study used liquid chromatography for organic carbon and nitrogen detection in the fractionation of EfOM originating from tertiary wastewater according to molecular size and charge and assessed the degree of adsorption of each fraction on a fully aromatic RO polyamide layer . However, the size- and charge-based fractionation revealed no significant differences between fractions in their adsorption capacity on the polyamide-mimetic surface.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…13,22,41 Our previous study used liquid chromatography for organic carbon and nitrogen detection in the fractionation of EfOM originating from tertiary wastewater according to molecular size and charge and assessed the degree of adsorption of each fraction on a fully aromatic RO polyamide layer. 42 However, the sizeand charge-based fractionation revealed no significant differences between fractions in their adsorption capacity on the polyamide-mimetic surface. Therefore, we suggest that fractionation of EfOM, based on hydrophobicity and acid− base properties, provides the groups of the most detrimental foulants that may greatly affect performance, even though they are a minor component of the total organic matter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fouling of Reverse Osmosis Membrane with Effluent Organic Matter: Componential Role of Hydrophobicity

et al. 2023

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Organic matter dissolved in tertiary effluents (effluent organic matter, EfOM) is the predominant organic membrane foulant in tertiary wastewater reverse osmosis (RO) desalination, ultimately causing biofouling. The interrelated effects of EfOM fractions of different hydrophobicity and polarity on membrane performance were studied by (i) examining each fraction's overall effect on membrane permeability; (ii) analyzing the intrinsic hydraulic resistance induced by each fraction; (iii) studying their adsorption on the active layer of an RO membrane using a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D); (iv) assessing their "dry" molecular mass when adsorbed on polyamide using localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensing; (v) analyzing their hydrodynamic radii by dynamic light scattering (DLS); and (vi) characterization using excitation− emission matrix (EEM) analysis and parallel-factor (PARAFAC) modeling. Hydrophobic and transphilic neutral fractions (containing ∼12.5% total organic carbon) have the greatest effect on membrane flux reduction and the highest hydraulic resistance and adhere most strongly to polyamide surfaces, resulting in the highest adsorbed "dry" mass. Therefore, in terms of their effect on RO permeate flux reduction, these fractions are the most detrimental in the EfOM mix. EEM analysis and associated PARAFAC modeling indicate that the main components causing this effect are mixtures of protein-like compounds, together with humic-like substances. Novel LSPR-based analysis elucidated the role of the fractions most detrimental to membrane permeability through measurement of dry mass surface concentration on a polyamide mimetic sensor. This study provides valuable insights into the roles of different EfOM fractions in RO membrane fouling and enhances our understanding of fouling during tertiary wastewater desalination.

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Unravelling the complex adsorption behavior of extracellular polymeric substances onto pristine and UV-aged microplastics using two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy

Zafar

Arshad

Choi

et al. 2023

Chemical Engineering Journal

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Impact of pretreatment on RO membrane organic fouling: composition and adhesion of tertiary wastewater effluent organic matter

Abstract: Organic fouling in the RO tertiary desalination process is of major concern in the decline in membrane performance. Mitigation of such fouling scenarios were shown in lab scale by biofiltration...

Cited by 8 publications

References 51 publications

Membrane distillation of wastewater: comparison of model and real organics

Membrane distillation of wastewater: comparison of model and real organics

Fouling of Reverse Osmosis Membrane with Effluent Organic Matter: Componential Role of Hydrophobicity

Unravelling the complex adsorption behavior of extracellular polymeric substances onto pristine and UV-aged microplastics using two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy

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