Treatment of wastewater containing nano-scale silica particles by dead-end microfiltration: evaluation of pretreatment methods

Retention of Silica Nanoparticles in a Lab-Scale Membrane Bioreactor: Implications for Process Performance and Membrane Fouling

“…The overall performance of the control and experimental setups based on the removal of organic matter and nutrients are summarized in Table 1. Although it may be disregarded as a potential threat to the process performance of an MBR, the retention of SiO2 NPs in the mixed liquor may pose a risk of membrane fouling [31,32]. The size-dependent toxicity of nanoparticles has been widely reported in literature, particularly in studies of nanoparticle toxicity in pure culture bacteria [22,23].…”

“…Colloids are also implicated in membrane fouling, which we specifically refer to as colloidal fouling in the following discussion. Colloidal fouling is a phenomenon typical [31,34,35] but not exclusive to microfiltration processes [13,36,37]. It is influenced by some factors including colloidal particle size, applied pressure and the interaction with other colloidal particles that may be present in activated sludge [11,38,39].…”

“…The overall performance of the control and experimental setups based on the removal of organic matter and nutrients are summarized in Table 1. Although it may be disregarded as a potential threat to the process performance of an MBR, the retention of SiO 2 NPs in the mixed liquor may pose a risk of membrane fouling [31,32]. …”