AWWA MTC57655

Various processes for wastewater reclamation have been widely used to overcome water shortage, especially with membrane filtration. Effluent organic matter (EfOM) from secondary or tertiary-treated wastewater effluent is target material to remove for wastewater reclamation because EfOM exhibits relatively higher DOC levels than natural organic matter (NOM). Membrane filtration with ultrafiltration (UF) membrane can be more effective for reuse of wastewater effluent than nanofiltration (NF) membrane in terms of recovery and energy cost, but lower EfOM removal efficiency than NF membrane and fouling with EfOM are major obstacles to its usage. Thus, the transport of EfOM in UF membranes was rigorously investigated to minimize membrane organic fouling and flux decline. In addition, several different researches have been studied to increase removal efficiency of dissolved organic matter in the water and wastewater by UF membranes with coagulation with alum or ferric oxide and powder activated carbon (PAC) being used as pretreatment. However, coagulation with alum or ferric oxide is not successful to remove dissolved organic matter and PAC pretreatment provided significant flux decline. Thus, polymers additive was tested as a pretreatment for membrane filtration to increase EfOM removal. The objectives of this study were to evaluate membrane performance in terms of EfOM removal and flux decline, to evaluate the efficiency of coagulation process with polymers as a pretreatment in terms of EfOM removal by UF membrane filtration, and to determine optimum conditions for membrane filtration, especially for highly negative-charged UF membranes. Includes 6 references, tables, figures.