AWWA MTC57591

The scarcity of freshwater in most of the countries in the Mediterranean Basin makes treated wastewater a valuable alternative water source. The improved technology for the removal of particles, turbidity, bacteria and cysts from effluent, without the use of disinfectants is based on the use of membranes, mainly on Micro-Filtration (MF) and Ultra-Filtration (UF). Membrane treatment of secondary effluent and surface water sounds attractive since it is a stable water source. Pathogens, soluble organic maters, turbidity, color, parasites and viruses can be removed by membrane technology. Field data from several research sites related to effluent quality; surface water and back-washed filtrate provides performance estimate efficiencies based on the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. The exploration focused on individual UF and MF experiments determining the membrane performance efficiency in terms of information quality for adequate decision-making. DEA is an empirically based methodology and the research approach has been found to be effective in the depiction and analysis of complex systems efficiency, where a large number of mutual interacting variables are involved. Includes 33 references, table, figures.