title: Fate and fouling characteristics of fluorescent dissolved organic matter in ultrafiltration of terrestrial humic substances.
abstract: Ultrafiltration (UF) membrane fouling caused by terrestrial input of dissolved organic matter (DOM), especially during high flood periods, is poorly understood. In this study, we examined the fouling characteristics of three different terrestrial humic substances (HS) on regenerated cellulose (RC) UF membranes with the pore sizes of 30 k-3 kDa via conventional bulk HS measurements as well as an advanced fluorescence spectroscopy. The fluorescence excitation-emission matrix coupled with parallel factor analysis (EEM-PARAFAC) identified one protein-like (C1) and three humic-like fluorescent components (C2-C4) from soil and leaf-derived HS. The fate of the different fluorescent components was individually tracked for the UF processes. The higher removal rates were found generally on the order of high molecular weight (HMW) C1 to smaller sized humic-like components (C4 > C3 > C2) regardless of the HS sources, implying the importance of HS molecular sizes on the UF operation. Among the humic-like components, C2 was the most associated with irreversible fouling, while other two humic-like components contributed more to reversible fouling. For soil-derived HS, C4 can be suggested as a good surrogate for membrane fouling, as evidenced by the highest correlation between the removal rates and the total fouling indices among the tested HS variables including conventional bulk parameters. Our study demonstrated a promising application of EEM-PARAFAC for probing membrane fouling of terrestrial DOM, which provided additional insight into the fate of different fluorescent components on the UF processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environment & Energy, Sejong University, Seoul 143-747, South Korea.
authors.forename: Viet Ly
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Quang
authors.affiliation: Water Resources Research Institute, Sejong University, Seoul 143-747, South Korea.
authors.forename: Hyun-Chul
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Environment & Energy, Sejong University, Seoul 143-747, South Korea.
authors.forename: Tahir
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Maqbool
authors.affiliation: Department of Environment & Energy, Sejong University, Seoul 143-747, South Korea. Electronic address: jinhur@sejong.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hur
mesh_terms: D002482:Cellulose / Q000737:chemistry; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005453:Fluorescence; D006812:Humic Substances / Q000032:analysis*; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods; D014462:Ultrafiltration / Q000379:methods*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D006812:Humic Substances; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D002482:Cellulose
keywords: Excitation emission matrix-parallel factor analysis (EEM-PARAFAC); Fouling; Molecular weight; Reversibility; Ultrafiltration (UF)