Autopsy of RO desalination membranes: Part 1 microbial characterization of foulants

Schaule, G.; Rapenne, S.; Strathmann, Martin; Grobe, Susanne; Robert, C.; Jacquemet, Valérie

doi:10.5004/dwt.2009.780

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…1À3 Recent studies point out that organic and biofouling are the major foulants of seawater RO membranes. 4,5 Nutrient-rich waters feed desalination plants as they are mostly located in coastal areas, therefore a comprehensive characterization of seawater quality is needed to better predict their fouling potential which remains a challenge for the desalination research field.…”

Section: ' Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The actual bottleneck in the reverse osmosis (RO) based desalination process is RO membrane fouling, which hinders plant performance. Membrane fouling can be caused by inorganic, organic compounds and particles, but also by the attachment of microorganisms to membrane surfaces and subsequent biofilm formation. − Recent studies point out that organic and biofouling are the major foulants of seawater RO membranes. , Nutrient-rich waters feed desalination plants as they are mostly located in coastal areas, therefore a comprehensive characterization of seawater quality is needed to better predict their fouling potential which remains a challenge for the desalination research field.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impact of Seawater-Quality and Water Treatment Procedures on the Active Bacterial Assemblages at Two Desalination Sites

Manes

Barbé

West

et al. 2011

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Inorganic and organic compounds, particles and microorganisms in intake waters are mainly responsible for fouling of reverse osmosis membranes, which reduces the efficiency of the desalination process. The characterization of seawater quality to better predict its fouling potential remains a challenge for the desalination field and little is known about the seasonal variability of water quality parameters in the coastal waters used to supply desalination plants. In this study, standard water quality methods were combined with flow cytometry and molecular methods (16S rRNA sequencing and fingerprinting) to assess in parallel, the physicochemical properties, the microbial abundance and the active microbial community composition of the intake waters and their associated pretreated waters at two desalination sites from July 2007 to July 2008. The overall assessment of quality parameters revealed that microfiltration followed by slow sand filtration were the most efficient in removing microorganisms than the conventional dual media filtration routinely used in full-scale desalination plants, and that all treatments were inefficient for organic matter reduction. Temporal variation of the environmental parameters such as temperature, turbidity and silt density index only moderately affected the bacterial community structure in raw waters, but that interestingly, water treatment compartments changed the composition and diversity of the metabolically active bacterial populations and thus create distinct ecological post-treatment niches.

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Section: ' Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Seawater-Quality and Water Treatment Procedures on the Active Bacterial Assemblages at Two Desalination Sites

Manes

Barbé

West

et al. 2011

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Characterization of bacterial population associated with a brackish water desalination membrane

Khambhaty

Plumb

2011

Desalination

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Dynamic bacterial communities on reverse-osmosis membranes in a full-scale desalination plant

et al. 2010

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To better understand biofouling of seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) membranes, bacterial diversity was characterized in the intake water, in subsequently pretreated water and on SWRO membranes from a full-scale desalination plant (FSDP) during a 9 month period. 16S rRNA gene fingerprinting and sequencing revealed that bacterial communities in the water samples and on the SWRO membranes were very different. For the different sampling dates, the bacterial diversity of the active and the total bacterial fractions of the water samples remained relatively stable over the sampling period whereas the bacterial community structure on the four SWRO membrane samples was significantly different. The richness and evenness of the SWRO membrane bacterial communities increased with usage time with an increase in the Shannon diversity index of 2.2 to 3.7. In the oldest SWRO membrane (330 days), no single operational taxonomic unit (OTU) dominated and the majority of the OTUs fell into the Alphaproteobacteria or the Planctomycetes. In striking contrast, a Betaproteobacteria OTU affiliated to the genus Ideonella was dominant and exclusively found in the membrane used for the shortest time (10 days). This suggests that bacteria belonging to this genus could be one of the primary colonizers of the SWRO membrane. Knowledge of the dominant bacterial species on SWRO membranes and their dynamics should help guide culture studies for physiological characterization of biofilm forming species.

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Autopsy of RO desalination membranes: Part 1 microbial characterization of foulants

Cited by 4 publications

References 5 publications

Impact of Seawater-Quality and Water Treatment Procedures on the Active Bacterial Assemblages at Two Desalination Sites

Impact of Seawater-Quality and Water Treatment Procedures on the Active Bacterial Assemblages at Two Desalination Sites

Characterization of bacterial population associated with a brackish water desalination membrane

Dynamic bacterial communities on reverse-osmosis membranes in a full-scale desalination plant

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