title: Fouling characteristics of reverse osmosis membranes at different positions of a full-scale plant for municipal wastewater reclamation.
abstract: Membrane fouling is an important shortcoming limiting the efficiency and wide application of reverse osmosis (RO) technology. In this paper, RO membranes in a full-scale municipal wastewater reclamation plant were autopsied. From the lead to tail position RO membranes in RO system, both of organic and inorganic matters on membranes reduced gradually. The higher ion products in RO concentrate didn't result in more serious inorganic scaling on the last position RO membranes, which was contrast with some other researches. Fe, Ca and Mg were major inorganic elements. Fe had a relatively low concentration in RO influent but the highest content on membranes. However, there was no specific pretreatment in terms of Fe removal. Ca and Mg scaling was controlled by the antiscalants injected. Organic fouling (75.0-84.5% of dry weights) was major problem on RO membranes due to the large amount of dissolved organic matters in secondary effluent as raw water. Hydrophilic acid (HIA, 48.0% of total DOC), hydrophobic acid (HOA, 23.6%) and hydrophobic neutral (HON, 19.0%) fraction was largest among the six fractions in RO influent, while HON (38.2-51.1%) and HOA (22.1-26.1%) tended to accumulate on membranes in higher quantities. Monitoring HON and HOA might help to forecast organic fouling.
authors.affiliation: Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control State Key Joint Laboratory, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control State Key Joint Laboratory, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China; State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Microorganism Application and Risk Control (SMARC), Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, PR China. Electronic address: hyhu@tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Hong-Ying
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control State Key Joint Laboratory, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China.
authors.forename: Li-Juan
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, PR China.
authors.forename: Ying-Xue
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, PR China.
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
authors.forename: John C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Crittenden
mesh_terms: D000143:Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D002118:Calcium / Q000032:analysis; D002244:Carbon / Q000032:analysis; D002947:Cities; D004867:Equipment Design; D005374:Filtration; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D007501:Iron / Q000032:analysis; D008274:Magnesium / Q000032:analysis; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D009995:Osmosis; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid; D062065:Wastewater / Q000032:analysis*; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000143:Acids; D002118:Calcium; D002244:Carbon; D007501:Iron; D008274:Magnesium; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D062065:Wastewater; D014867:Water; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Inorganic scaling; Membrane fouling; Resin fraction; Reverse osmosis (RO); Wastewater reclamation