Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with different physiochemical properties were layered onto low pressure membranes and tested for antifouling properties using a natural surface water with high fouling potential. Membranes modified with the largest diameter pristine multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs) were most effective in controlling membrane fouling, tripling the time it took for the membrane to become noticea...

Tubular membrane filtration is an important process when feed waters with a relatively high solids content are filtered. Such solids would normally have to be removed in a pre-treatment stage if spiral wound modules are to be used. High solids content occurs for example in high turbidity surface waters, wastewaters that contain fibrous materials or in waters where coagulants are added. Tubular ...

Industrial wastewater treatment from cattle slaughterhouses traditionally use dissolved air floatation (DAF) to remove the high organic content of fat, oil and grease (FOG) from wastewaters and recover them for producing other products, including tallow, gelatine and food additives. Dissolved air floatation presents several operating difficulties including the large size, high energy use and od...

Effects of the suspended titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs, 50 mg/L) on the cake layer formation in a submerged MBR were systematically investigated. With nanometer sizes, TiO2 NPs were found to aggravate membrane pore blocking but postpone cake layer fouling. TiO2 NPs showed obvious effects on the structure and the distribution of the organic and the inorganic compounds in cake layer. C...

In this study, effects of organic loading rates on biological nutrient removal and in an MBR based nutrient removal system were investigated. Furthermore, trans-membrane pressure at different applied conditions was monitored to observe impact on membrane fouling Three different levels of CODinf and three HRTs (4, 5 & 8 hrs) were applied. An improved performance with 74 % & 89% of TN & TP remova...

Composite membranes were obtained by modification of heterogeneous polymer cation and anion-exchange membranes with nanoparticles of zirconium hydrophosphate and hydrated zirconium dioxide, respectively. The ion-exchange materials were investigated with the methods of electron microscopy, potentiometry, voltammetry, and impedance spectroscopy. Single nanoparticles, which were precipitated in aq...

Interest in forward osmosis (FO) research has rapidly increased in the last decade due to problems of water and energy scarcity. FO processes have been used in many applications, including wastewater reclamation, desalination, energy production, fertigation, and food and pharmaceutical processing. However, the inherent disadvantages of FO, such as lower permeate water flux compared to pressure ...

This study investigated the effects of high salinity on the performance and membrane fouling of membrane bioreactor (MBR) with saline wastewater. Synthetic wastewaters containing 5-20 g/L salts (NaCl) were treated in identical lab-scale (7 L) MBRs monitoring removals of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and ammonia. Increase in salt concentrations did not significantly change the removal efficienc...

Effects of wastewater and mixed liquor characteristics on membrane fouling in both a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor and a thermophilic submerged aerobic membrane bioreactor were studied with four types of industrial wastewaters. Significant differences in particle size distribution, colloidal content, the protein to polysaccharide ratio, and soluble compounds molecular weight distribut...

Fouling of membrane surfaces by particulate matter and large organic molecules is relatively common for pressure-driven membrane processes, namely, reverse osmosis (RO), nanofiltration (NF), and ultrafiltration (UF). Donnan membrane process (DMP) or Donnan Dialysis is driven by electrochemical potential gradient across a semipermeable ion exchange membrane. Theoretically, DMP is not susceptible...