Curtin University Homepage
  • Library
  • Help
    • Admin

    espace - Curtin’s institutional repository

    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
    View Item 
    • espace Home
    • espace
    • Curtin Research Publications
    • View Item
    • espace Home
    • espace
    • Curtin Research Publications
    • View Item

    Ceramic membrane as a pretreatment for reverse osmosis: Interaction between marine organic matter and metal oxides

    Access Status
    Fulltext not available
    Authors
    Dramas, L.
    Croue, Jean-Philippe
    Date
    2013
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citation
    Dramas, L. and Croue, J. 2013. Ceramic membrane as a pretreatment for reverse osmosis: Interaction between marine organic matter and metal oxides. Desalination and Water Treatment. 51 (7-9): pp. 1781-1789.
    Source Title
    Desalination and Water Treatment
    DOI
    10.1080/19443994.2012.714728
    ISSN
    1944-3994
    School
    Curtin Water Quality Research Centre
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/48949
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    Scaling and (bio)fouling phenomena can severely alter the performance of the reverse osmosis process during desalination of seawater. Pretreatments must be applied to efficiently remove particles, colloids, and also precursors of the organic fouling and biofouling. Ceramic membranes offer a lot of advantages for micro and ultrafiltration pretreatments because their initial properties can be recovered using more severe cleaning procedure. The study focuses on the interaction between metal oxides and marine organic matter. Experiments were performed at laboratory scale. The first series of experiments focus on the filtration of different fractions of natural organic matter and model compounds solutions on flat disk ceramic membranes (47 mm of diameter) characterized with different pore size and composition. Direct filtration experiments were conducted at 0.7 bar or 2 bars and at room temperature (20 ± 0.5 °C). The efficiency of backflush and alkaline cleaning were eval, and titanium oxides. Each metal oxide corresponds to a specific pore size for the disk ceramic membranes: 80, 60, and 30 nm. Different sizes of metal oxide particles are used to measure the impact of the surface area on the adsorption of the organic matter. Seawaters from the Arabian Gulf and from the Red Sea were collected during algal blooms. Cultures of algae were also performed in the laboratory and in cooperation with woods hole oceanographic institute. Solutions of algal exudates were obtained after a couple of weeks of cultivation followed by sonication. Solutions were successively filtered through GFF (0.7 lm) and 0.45 lm membrane filters before use. The dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration of final solution was between 1 and 4 mg/L and showed strong hydrophilic character. These various solutions were prepared with the objective to mimic the dissolved organic matter composition of seawater subjected to algal bloom. Characterization of the solutions of filtration experiments (feed water, permeate water, and back-washes) and batch experiments (raw solution and supernatant solutions) included fluorescence, UV, total organic carbon, total nitrogen, and Liquid Chromatography - Organic Carbon Detection measurements. In comparison to seawater under normal condition, seawa- ters collected during algal bloom and algal exudates solutions led to very severe fouling of all ceramic membranes (with some DOC removal of 10-20%). It is important to indicate that algal exudate permeates still exert fouling properties when filtered through similar new (virgin) membrane. These results indicate that both size exclusion and adsorption phenomena occur (on surface, inside pores). In all cases, the backflush (performed with MilliQ [MQ]) showed minor or no effect and the cleaning backwash was not able to recover the initial flux (30-60%). Analyses performed on the backflush solution (performed with MQ) and on the alkaline cleaning solution revealed the retention of both high and low molecular organics on the different metal oxides. Unfortunately, analyses of membrane surface using imaging various tools are not providing informative results in term of foulant/adsorbed material composition. © 2013 Desalination Publications. All rights reserved.

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Size exclusion chromatography as a tool for natural organic matter characterisation in drinking water treatment
      Allpike, Bradley (2008)
      Natural organic matter (NOM), ubiquitous in natural water sources, is generated by biogeochemical processes in both the water body and in the surrounding watershed, as well as from the contribution of organic compounds ...
    • Investigation of severe UF membrane fouling induced by three marine algal species
      Merle, T.; Dramas, L.; Gutierrez, L.; Garcia-Molina, V.; Croue, Jean-Philippe (2016)
      © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. Reducing membrane fouling caused by seawater algal bloom is a challenge for regions of the world where most of their freshwater is produced by seawater desalination. This study aims to compare ...
    • Interaction of soluble organic matter with metal oxides used as ceramic membrane for drinking water pretreatment
      Dramas, L.; Croue, Jean-Philippe (2012)
      Throughout the world, a trend to intensify use of desalination as a means to reduce current or future water scarcity is observed. Membrane desalination is an extremely good technique for the removal of colloids, dissolved ...
    Advanced search

    Browse

    Communities & CollectionsIssue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDocument TypeThis CollectionIssue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDocument Type

    My Account

    Admin

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

    Follow Curtin

    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 

    CRICOS Provider Code: 00301JABN: 99 143 842 569TEQSA: PRV12158

    Copyright | Disclaimer | Privacy statement | Accessibility

    Curtin would like to pay respect to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members of our community by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which the Perth campus is located, the Whadjuk people of the Nyungar Nation; and on our Kalgoorlie campus, the Wongutha people of the North-Eastern Goldfields.