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Investigations on fouling and cleaning of membranes used for direct membrane filtration of municipal wastewater

Lipnizki, Frank LU orcid ; Gidstedt, Simon LU orcid ; Khalid, Omer and Rudolph, Gregor LU orcid (2021) 5th International Conference on Desalination using Membrane Technology
Abstract
The concept of direct membrane filtration (DMF) is relatively new for treating municipal wastewater. In contrast to a conventional membrane bioreactor, DMF decouples filtration and biological treatment. This presentation is based on a pilot scale DMF study conducted at the municipal wastewater treatment plant in Svedala (Sweden), combined with lab-scale experiments and analysis to optimise the pilot performance. To reduce fouling, membrane operation at pilot scale included membrane relaxation and aeriation induced crossflow. Chemical cleaning was conducted by soaking and/or backwashing with chemicals to restore membrane performance as per manufacturer recommendations. Acid cleaning was performed with citric acid and hydrochloric acid... (More)
The concept of direct membrane filtration (DMF) is relatively new for treating municipal wastewater. In contrast to a conventional membrane bioreactor, DMF decouples filtration and biological treatment. This presentation is based on a pilot scale DMF study conducted at the municipal wastewater treatment plant in Svedala (Sweden), combined with lab-scale experiments and analysis to optimise the pilot performance. To reduce fouling, membrane operation at pilot scale included membrane relaxation and aeriation induced crossflow. Chemical cleaning was conducted by soaking and/or backwashing with chemicals to restore membrane performance as per manufacturer recommendations. Acid cleaning was performed with citric acid and hydrochloric acid followed by an alkaline cleaning with hydrogen peroxide and sodium hydroxide. Operation at pilot scale with an initial permeability of 29 L/m2/h/bar resulted in rapid fouling of the membrane. During the pilot trails, it was observed that the recommended cleaning method was insufficient to restore the membrane performance completely; a recovery of 64% was observed after acid and alkaline backwashing. Therefore, membrane cleaning was investigated on lab-scale to improve the cleaning procedure. In this study, different chemical reagents and relaxation protocols were tested. To determine cleaning performance along with potential foulants, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were used. Based on the findings, a new relaxation and chemical cleaning protocol was developed with pure alkaline cleaning as a key step to ensure high flux recovery rates over long cycles. Overall, this study revealed that a systematic approach towards membrane cleaning can improve cleaning efficiency and thus reduces the impact of fouling in DMF operation.
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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to conference
publication status
unpublished
subject
keywords
Membrane processes, Direct membrane filtration, Membrane fouling, Membrane cleaning
conference name
5th International Conference on Desalination using Membrane Technology
conference location
Shanghai, China
conference dates
2021-11-14 - 2021-11-17
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
f5c33e9b-15e4-4648-82b8-d7e784b07056
date added to LUP
2024-01-07 07:46:49
date last changed
2024-01-16 12:59:17
@misc{f5c33e9b-15e4-4648-82b8-d7e784b07056,
  abstract     = {{The concept of direct membrane filtration (DMF) is relatively new for treating municipal wastewater. In contrast to a conventional membrane bioreactor, DMF decouples filtration and biological treatment. This presentation is based on a pilot scale DMF study conducted at the municipal wastewater treatment plant in Svedala (Sweden), combined with lab-scale experiments and analysis to optimise the pilot performance. To reduce fouling, membrane operation at pilot scale included membrane relaxation and aeriation induced crossflow. Chemical cleaning was conducted by soaking and/or backwashing with chemicals to restore membrane performance as per manufacturer recommendations. Acid cleaning was performed with citric acid and hydrochloric acid followed by an alkaline cleaning with hydrogen peroxide and sodium hydroxide.  Operation at pilot scale with an initial permeability of 29 L/m2/h/bar resulted in rapid fouling of the membrane. During the pilot trails, it was observed that the recommended cleaning method was insufficient to restore the membrane performance completely; a recovery of 64% was observed after acid and alkaline backwashing. Therefore, membrane cleaning was investigated on lab-scale to improve the cleaning procedure. In this study, different chemical reagents and relaxation protocols were tested. To determine cleaning performance along with potential foulants, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were used. Based on the findings, a new relaxation and chemical cleaning protocol was developed with pure alkaline cleaning as a key step to ensure high flux recovery rates over long cycles. Overall, this study revealed that a systematic approach towards membrane cleaning can improve cleaning efficiency and thus reduces the impact of fouling in DMF operation.   <br/>}},
  author       = {{Lipnizki, Frank and Gidstedt, Simon and Khalid, Omer and Rudolph, Gregor}},
  keywords     = {{Membrane processes; Direct membrane filtration; Membrane fouling; Membrane cleaning}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{11}},
  title        = {{Investigations on fouling and cleaning of membranes used for direct membrane filtration of municipal wastewater}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}