Alleviation of RO membrane fouling in wastewater reclamation plants using an enhanced acid-base chemical cleaning method.

Autor: Zihao L; School of Environmental & Municipal Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, 777, Jialingjiangdong Road, Qingdao, 266520, PR China; Center for Water Research, Advanced Institute of Natural Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, 519087, China., Wang J; Qingdao Jinlonghongye Environmental Protection Co. Ltd, 2 Tianbaoshan Road, Qingdao, 266510, PR China., Cheng L; School of Environmental & Municipal Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, 777, Jialingjiangdong Road, Qingdao, 266520, PR China. Electronic address: chenglihua666@163.com., Yang Q; School of Environmental & Municipal Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, 777, Jialingjiangdong Road, Qingdao, 266520, PR China., Li P; School of Environmental & Municipal Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, 777, Jialingjiangdong Road, Qingdao, 266520, PR China., Dong X; School of Environmental & Municipal Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, 777, Jialingjiangdong Road, Qingdao, 266520, PR China., Xu B; Center for Water Research, Advanced Institute of Natural Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, 519087, China., Zhi M; Center for Water Research, Advanced Institute of Natural Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, 519087, China., Hao A; Center for Water Research, Advanced Institute of Natural Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, 519087, China., Ng HY; Center for Water Research, Advanced Institute of Natural Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, 519087, China., Bi X; School of Environmental & Municipal Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, 777, Jialingjiangdong Road, Qingdao, 266520, PR China.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Water research [Water Res] 2024 Sep 01; Vol. 261, pp. 122039. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jul 02.
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2024.122039
Abstrakt: Membrane fouling has always been a critical constraint in the operation of the reverse osmosis (RO) process, and chemical cleaning is essential for mitigating membrane fouling and ensuring smooth operation of the membrane system. This paper presents an optimized chemical cleaning method for the efficient cleaning of RO membranes in full-scale applications. Compared to the regular cleaning method (cleaning with 0.1 % NaOH + 1 % ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid + 0.025 % sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate followed by 0.2 % HCl), the optimized cleaning method improves the cleaning efficiency by adding sodium chloride to the alkaline cleaning solution and citric acid to the acid cleaning solution. Notably, the membrane flux recovery rate with the optimized cleaning method is 45.74 %, and it improves the cleaning efficiency by 1.65 times compared to the regular cleaning method. Additionally, the optimized cleaning method removes 30.46 % of total foulants (organic and inorganic), which is 2.11 times higher than the regular cleaning method. The removal of inorganic ions such as Fe, Ca, and Mg is significantly improved with the optimized cleaning method. For organic matter removal, the optimized cleaning method effectively removes more polysaccharides, proteins, and microbial metabolites by disrupting the complex structures of organic matter. Furthermore, it also changes the microbial community structure on the RO membrane surface by eliminating microorganisms that cannot withstand strong acids, bases, and high salt environments. However, Mycobacterium can adapt to these harsh conditions, showing a relative abundance of up to 84.13 % after cleaning. Overall, our results provide a new chemical cleaning method for RO membranes in full-scale applications. This method effectively removes membrane foulants and enhances the understanding of the removal characteristics of foulants on RO membrane surfaces by chemical cleaning.
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 © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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