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Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.Fouling mitigation

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    Fouling and cleaning in osmotically driven membranes
    (InTechOpen, 2018-03-06) Chollom, Martha Noro; Rathilal, Sudesh
    Fouling is a phenomenon that occurs in all membrane processes. It is a complex problem, which limits the full operation of this technology. Fouling in pressure-driven membranes (PDMs) has been studied extensively, and the occurrence is well understood in that methods of mitigation have been proposed; however, limitations still occur for their full implementation. The use of osmotically driven membranes (ODMs) for water treatment is an emerging technology, which has shown some advantages such as low hydraulic pressure operation, high solute rejection and high recovery over PDMs. However, like in PDMs, fouling still presents a challenge. This chapter is aimed at evaluating the impact of fouling on the ODM performance, exploring the factors and mechanisms governing the fouling behaviour, developing approaches for mitigating fouling, elucidating the effect of membrane fouling and providing mitigation strategies as well as the causes of fouling in ODMs.
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    Fouling mitigation on a woven fibre microfiltration membrane for the treatment of raw water
    (Institution of Chemical Engineers, 2017-06) Chollom, Martha Noro; Pikwa, Kumnandi; Rathilal, Sudesh; Pillay, Visvanathan Lingamurti
    The main source of drinking water in rural areas of South Africa is surface water. Improving drinking water and sanitation facilities alone does not completely solve the problem of waterborne diseases. A novel simple gravity driven filtration unit incorporated with the woven fibre microfiltration (WFMF) membranes was developed for the treatment of raw water for drinking purposes. However, these membranes are susceptible to fouling which reduces flux permeation. This paper focused on evaluating the fouling mitigation strategies to improve on performance of the woven fibre membrane filtration unit with respect to fouling and flux recovery. The study found that the WFMF membrane fouled both internally by pore plugging and externally by adsorption and deposition on the membrane. As a result, a single flux enhancement strategy proved insufficient to maintain high flux successfully. A combination of strategies gave the best optimum conditions for flux production. Backwashing with a combination of brushing yielded the highest recovery of 187%. Soaking the membranes in 0.2% hypochlorite for an hour and thereafter by brushing them yielded 93% flux recovery. Mechanical cleaning however yielded the best result with 97% flux recovery. It was concluded that the selected strategies were the most successful strategies to prevent a sharp decline in flux due to fouling and giving high average flux for the filtration period.