Comparison of different model solutions to simulate membrane fouling in the ultrafiltration of a secondary effluent from a municipal wastewater treatment plant

Abstract

AbstractThe quality of the secondary treatment effluent (STE) from a municipal wastewater treatment plant (MWWTP) is not good enough for some applications such as agriculture. Membrane ultrafiltration (UF) has been proven to be a reliable tertiary treatment to achieve the needed water quality. The productivity of the UF processes depends on the membrane fouling. The aim of this work is to prepare a model wastewater that could mimic the fouling trend of a STE wastewater from a MWWTP. Several model wastewaters consisting of different proteins and carbohydrates were used in the UF experiments. UF was also performed with a STE. The membrane used in the UF tests was a UFCM5 from Norit X-flow® hydrophilic polyethersulfone/polyvinylpyrrolidone blend hollow-fiber UF membrane of 200 KDa molecular weight cut-off with a fiber diameter of 1.5 mm. Membrane configuration was inside-out. UF tests with model wastewater and STE wastewater were compared. The results showed that the best model wastewater, which represents t...