title: Membrane autopsy based bio-fouling investigation of distillery spent wash RO treatment plant.
abstract: In this paper, a thorough investigation has been done to evaluate the effects of different pollutants on membrane performance by autopsy. Autopsy was performed on fresh and fouled reverse osmosis (RO) membrane elements from a distillery spent wash treatment plant by different analyses, such as field emission scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, to identify the cause of poor performance of an RO plant. Results obtained from the analysis of membranes indicate that a mixture of colloids and organic matters (polysaccharides and amines) along with the presence of multivalent ions (Ca, Mg, Fe and SO4) causes membrane fouling, which in turn affects membrane performance. Possible measures to improve treated effluent quality and mitigate fouling have been suggested for this particular case study.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Hydrology , Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee , Roorkee 247667 , India.
authors.forename: Pinki
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Himanshu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Joshi
mesh_terms: D007220:Industrial Waste; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D009995:Osmosis; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D007220:Industrial Waste; D008567:Membranes, Artificial
keywords: distillery spent wash; membrane autopsy; membrane fouling; reverse osmosis; tertiary RO treatment plant