Revealing the mechanisms of irreversible fouling during microfiltration – The role of feedwater composition

While microfiltration has seen wide acceptance in water treatment, the irreversible fouling of microfilters remains as biggest impediment to their long-term performance. Thus, developing a better understanding mechanisms is crucial. To this end, we investigated mechanism effluent organic matter (EfOM)-membrane interactions responsible for polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes during wastewater filtration by evaluating backwash efficacy different backwashing solutions (ultrapure water, NaCl, CaCl 2 , HCl, NaOH, and NaClO). The efficiency followed order HCl < salt solution ≈ Ultrapure NaOH NaClO. A combined analysis these results suggests that electrostatic (divalent cation influenced EfOM-membrane bridging) play minimal role effecting non-electrostatic direct like hydrophobic dominantly influence fouling. Since model species (bovine serum albumin, alginate, humic acid) are regularly used simulate effluent, also evaluated using backwashing. – indicating dominant mechanism. from lab-scale studies employing should be interpreted cautiously conservatively. • specific NaClO-CEB led effective reversal filtration. Salt exacerbated compared ultrapure water. Different with foulants.