Microbially-induced mineral scaling in desalination conditions: Mechanisms and effects of commercial antiscalants.

Autor: Ansari A; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 77004, USA., Peña-Bahamonde J; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 77004, USA., Fanourakis SK; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 77004, USA., Hu Y; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 77004, USA., Rodrigues DF; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 77004, USA; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 77004, USA. Electronic address: dfrigirodrigues@uh.edu.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Water research [Water Res] 2020 Jul 15; Vol. 179, pp. 115863. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 May 03.
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2020.115863
Abstrakt: Reverse osmosis (RO) technology is promising in the sustainable production of fresh water. However, expansion of RO use has been hindered by membrane fouling, mainly inorganic fouling known as scaling. Although membrane mineral scaling by chemical means have been investigated extensively, mineral scaling triggered by microbial activity has been largely neglected. In this study, the simultaneous biomineralization of CaCO 3 and CaSO 4 in the presence of three different microbial communities from fresh water, wastewater, and seawater was investigated. In the presence of either 13 or 79 mM of Ca 2+ and SO 4 2- in the media, the fresh water microbial community produced calcite/vaterite and vaterite/gypsum, respectively; the wastewater community produced vaterite and vaterite/gypsum, respectively; and the seawater community produced aragonite in both conditions. The results showed that the concentration of salts and the microbial composition influence the types of precipitates produced. The mechanisms of crystal formation of CaCO 3 and gypsum by these communities were also investigated by determining the need for metabolic active cells, the effect of a calcium channel blocker, and the presence of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). The results showed that metabolically active cells can lead to production of EPS and formation of Ca 2+ gradient along the cells through calcium channels, which will trigger formation of biominerals. The prevention of biomineralization by these consortia was also investigated with two common polymeric RO antiscalants, i.e. polyacrylic acid (PAA) and polymaleic acid (PMA). Results showed that these antiscalants do not prevent the formation of the bio-precipitates suggesting that novel approaches to prevent biomineralization in RO systems still needs to be investigated.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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