Biogenic manganese oxides (BioMnOx) are known
to self-catalyze
Mn(II) oxidation and are unfavorable in conventional ultrafiltration
(UF) processes for Mn(II)-containing water purification because they
can accumulate on membrane surfaces and cause severe cake fouling.
However, recent studies based on gravity-driven membrane (GDM) have
found that the fouling resistance of the BioMnOx cake layer
is surprisingly low under low flux conditions (several L m–2 h–1), but the underlying mechanism is not clear.
Therefore, in this study, we investigated the formation and hydraulic
resistances of the naturally formed BioMnOx cake layers
at various fluxes (5, 10, 15, and 20 L m–2 h–1). The results showed that the BioMnOx could
form a heterogeneous cake layer with many mounds, and these BioMnOx cake layers could remove nearly 100% of 2 mg L–1 Mn(II) after 34, 49, 55, and 64 days of dead-end filtration at fluxes
of 5, 10, 15, and 20 L m–2 h–1, respectively. The hydraulic resistance of the BioMnOx cake layer rapidly increased at high fluxes of 10, 15, and 20 L
m–2 h–1, while it remained very
low (<5 × 1012 m–1) at a low
flux of 5 L m–2 h–1. In-situ optical
coherence tomography (OCT) observation revealed that at low flux,
the BioMnOx mounds of the cake layer had a higher height–width
ratio and lower coverage and thus more porous structures. We attributed
this structure to the unique growth pattern of BioMnOx at
low fluxes. Specifically, because the advection velocity of Mn(II)
was low at low fluxes, new BioMnOx was mainly grown in
the upper parts of the cake layer with enough time for Mn(II) diffusion
and oxidation. Then, the upper parts depleted Mn(II), and consequently,
the lower parts maintained a high porosity with few formations of
BioMnOx at their confined pores.