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. 2015 Sep 10;12(9):11269-77.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph120911269.

Powder Activated Carbon Pretreatment of a Microfiltration Membrane for the Treatment of Surface Water

Yali Song  1 , Bingzhi Dong  2 , Naiyun Gao  3 , Xiaoyan Ma  4
Affiliations

Powder Activated Carbon Pretreatment of a Microfiltration Membrane for the Treatment of Surface Water

Yali Song et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

This study focused on the effect of powder activated carbon (PAC) adsorption on microfiltration (MF) membrane performance. The results showed that PAC pretreatment offered high organic matter removal rates for both dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and ultraviolet absorbance at 254 nm (UV254) during 10-200 mg/L PAC dosage. The removal efficiencies of organic matter by MF membrane filtration decreased with the increase of organic matter removal rate by PAC adsorption. PAC mainly removed organic matter of about 3 kDa molecular weight (MW). MF membrane maintained more than 5 kDa MW organic matter on the membrane after PAC adsorption. The results of membrane filtration indicated that PAC pretreatment slightly promoted membrane flux, regardless of PAC dosage. It seems that the organic matter fouling membrane was concentrated in more than 3 kDa MW. PAC removed markedly less than 3 kDa MW organic matter and had less effect on more than 3 kDa organic matter. Thus, PAC cannot reduce membrane fouling.

Keywords: PAC; membrane flux; microfiltration; organic matter; surface water.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic of microfiltration (MF) filtration apparatus.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Efficiencies of DOC and ultraviolet absorbance at 254 nm (UV254) by powder activated carbon (PAC)/MF process.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Effect of PAC on organics molecular weight distribution.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Effect of PAC and MF on organics molecular weight distribution.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Membrane flux variation with different PAC dosage.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Change of organic hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity for raw water filtrated membrane filtration.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Change of organic matter molecular weight (MW) in raw water before and after membrane filtration.
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