Application of forward osmosis (FO) membrane to microalgae cultivation processes enables concentration of microalgae and nutrients with low energy consumption. To understand fouling characteristics of FO membrane in concentration of microalgae culture, we studied flux decline, flux recovery by cleaning, and foulants characteristics, in different membrane orientation of active-layer-facing-feed-solution (AL-FS) and active-layer-facing-draw-solution (AL-DS) modes. Batch concentration of Chlorella vulgaris was conducted with a cellulose-triacetate FO membrane. Rapid flux decline and lower flux recovery was observed in AL-DS mode because of inner-membrane fouling including internal pore clogging, adsorption and internal concentration polarization in the support layer. A proportion of polysaccharides in extracellular polymeric substances to soluble microbial products were larger in chemical cleaning effluent than physical one in AL-DS mode, although those were not significantly different in AL-FS mode. Excitation-emission matrix analysis revealed that proteins and humic-like substances were also possible irreversible foulants both in AL-DS and AL-FS modes.

This research is focused on characterizing the foulants on a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane taken from a full-scale leachate treatment plant in Thailand. The system consists of a physico-chemical pre-treatment unit and RO system and has been in operation for 2 years. Ferric chloride (FeCl(3)) was added to the open-jet sedimentation tank at 2.0-2.5 g/l dosage for chemical coagulation. The supernatant from the sedimentation tank was polished using a pressurized sand filter prior to entering the RO system. The RO unit consists of seven pressurized vessels and 42 membrane elements (6 elements in each vessel). The recovery ratio and operating pressure in the RO system were maintained at 50% and 1.5-2.5 MPa. Fouled membranes obtained from short-term (6 months) and long-term operation (2 years) were taken from the system and analyzed by autopsy and sequential cleaning methods. The analysis of foulants on the membrane surfaces revealed that Fe deposits at 3.11 g/m(2). For short-term operated membranes, water cleaning could recover 32.14 and 7.45% of initial pure water flux on the 1st and 6th membrane elements. NaOH cleaning, however, recovered more than 90% of initial flux, much higher than that of HCl solution in both elements. For long-term operated membranes, pure water flux recovery was below 5% for both 1st and 6th elements. Sequential cleaning by NaOH followed by HCl yielded the best results. Nevertheless, flux recovery through sequential cleaning of long-term operated membranes was only 35.3 and 19.1% for the 1st and the 6th elements, respectively.

Fouling characteristics of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane with chemical coagulation and microfiltration (MF) pre-treatment were investigated at full-scale leachate treatment systems. In chemical coagulation pre-treatment, solid separation from stabilized leachate was performed by ferric chloride coagulation followed by sand filtration. Meanwhile, MF pre-treatment and the RO system utilized direct filtration using a 0.03 µm membrane without chemical addition. MF pre-treatment yielded better pollutant removals in terms of organics and nitrogen. The study on effect of pre-treatment on RO membrane fouling revealed that accumulated foulant on the RO membrane in MF pre-treatment was significantly lower than that of chemical coagulation. Nevertheless, NaOH cleaning of the fouled RO membrane after chemical coagulation pre-treatment could better recover its permeate flux, thus suggesting that the formation of a loose-structure cake layer by chemical coagulation pre-treatment could allow effective penetration of chemical cleaning and detachment of foulant layer from the membrane surface.

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