Hollow Fiber Ultrafiltration of Ottawa River Water: Impact of Different Pre-treatment Schemes

Abstract

To minimize membrane fouling many water treatment plants pre-treat water prior to microfiltration (MF) or ultrafiltration (UF). Coagulation/flocculation/sedimentation is a common form of pre-treatment, but little research has been conducted on floatation as a part of the pre-treatment. The objective of this thesis is to compare pre-treatment with floatation and with sedimentation for Ottawa River water, a typical Northern Canadian water with a high natural organic matter (NOM) content and a large hydrophobic (HPO) NOM fraction. Fouling tests consisted of multiple filtration/backwashing cycles performed by an automated bench-scale UF hollow fiber membrane system. Test were conducted with Ottawa River water (ORW) and ORW subjected to three different types of pre-treatment conducted at closely-located full-scale water treatment plants, including one using floatation. Both Alum pre-treatments resulted in decreases in NOM (63% and 68% TOC) and HPO NOM (56% and 68%TOC) which helped to reduce fouling. However, the remaining NOM and HPO NOM still caused significant hydraulically and chemical irreversible fouling. The water pre-treated with floatation produced the least severe hydraulically irreversible fouling for all experiments while Raw ORW produced the highest. During the early stages of membrane filtration (~10 hours), the TMP sharply increases which may imply that adsorption is dominant. Statistical analysis during the initial stages of filtration showed that the HPO fraction of NOM was linked to hydraulically irreversible fouling, which may be attributed to adsorption. Raw ORW also had the highest hydraulically reversible fouling while all pre-treatments were able to reduce this type of fouling. Statistical analysis suggested that the transphilic (TPI) fraction of NOM and particulate organic carbon (POC) were responsible for hydraulically reversible fouling during subcritical flux experiments, which may be attributed to cake formation on the membrane surface. It was found that for all waters and experiments, hydraulically irreversible fouling was greater than hydraulically reversible fouling. This may be because of the high HPO concentrations in the ORW. Hydraulically reversible fouling and backwash efficiencies were found to fluctuate with time. It is hypothesised that the cake formation adheres to the membrane surface and is not fully removed until enough backwash pressure has developed. Further investigation into alternative cleaning procedures is required as the NaOH cleaning was not very effective for some of the pre-treated waters.