Controlling Biofouling in Seawater Reverse Osmosis Membrane Systems

Seawater desalination is a rapidly growing coastal industry that is increasingly threatened by algal blooms. Depending on the severity of algal blooms, desalination systems may be forced to shut down because of clogging and/or poor feed water quality. To maintain stable operation and provide good feed water quality to seawater reverse osmosis ...

Biofouling in reverse and forward osmosis membrane systems

Global freshwater demand has significantly increased over the past century and continued growth is expected in the coming century. Since more than 97 percent of the water in the world is seawater, desalination technologies have the potential to solve the fresh water crisis. Currently, the most used desalination technology is reverse osmosis,...

Direct measurement of atp in seawater and application of ATP to monitor bacterial growth potential in SWRO pre-treatment systems

The use of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to monitor bacterial growth potential of seawater is currently not possible as ATP cannot be accurately measured at low concentration in seawater using commercially available luciferase-based ATP detection. The limitation is due to interference of salt with the luciferin–luciferase reaction, which...

Applicability of short-term accelerated biofouling studies to predict long-term biofouling in reverse osmosis membrane systems

Biofouling studies addressing biofouling control are mostly executed in short-term studies. It is unclear whether data collected from these experiments are representative for long-term biofouling as occurring in full-scale membrane systems. This study investigated whether short-term biofouling studies accelerated by biodegradable nutrient...

Decentralized sewage treatment by ceramic Microfiltration: A study in the RINEW project concept

The increase in greenhouse gas emissions change the precipitation behaviour causing either extreme wet- or dry weather. This impacts the fresh water supply for clean water production. Evides B.V., one of the Dutch water companies, anticipates to these changes with the sewer mining concept called ‘RINEW’ (Rotterdam Innovative Nutrients and Energy...

Antifouling on BFOS: A case study of the application of an antifouling coating on an offshore tower platform

Extraction of structural extracellular polymeric substances from aerobic granular sludge

To evaluate and develop methodologies for the extraction of gel-forming extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), EPS from aerobic granular sludge (AGS) was extracted using six different methods (centrifugation, sonication, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), formamide with sodium hydroxide (NaOH), formaldehyde with NaOH and sodium...

Mini-review: novel non-destructive in situ biofilm characterization techniques in membrane systems

Membrane systems are commonly used in the water industry to produce potable water and for advanced wastewater treatment. One of the major drawbacks of membrane systems is biofilm formation (biofouling), which results in an unacceptable decline in membrane performance. Three novel in situ biofouling characterization techniques were assessed: ...

Phosphate and arsenate removal efficiency by thermostable ferritin enzyme from Pyrococcus furiosus using radioisotopes

Oxo-anion binding properties of the thermostable enzyme ferritin from Pyrococcus furiosus were characterized with radiography. Radioisotopes 32P and 76As present as oxoanions were used to measure the extent and the rate of their absorption by the ferritin. Thermostable ferritin proved to be an excellent system for rapid phosphate and arsenate...

Hybrid membrane system for desalination and wastewater treatment: Integrating forward osmosis and low pressure reverse osmosis

Since more than 97% of the water in the world is seawater, desalination technologies have the potential to solve the fresh water crisis. The most used desalination technology nowadays is seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO), where a membrane is used as a physical barrier to separate the salts from the water, using high hydraulic pressure as the...

Algal blooms and Membrane Based Desalination Technology

Seawater desalination is rapidly growing in terms of installed capacity (~80 million m3/day in 2013), plant size and global application. An emerging threat to this technology is the seasonal proliferation of microscopic algae in seawater known as algal blooms. Such blooms have caused operational problems in seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plants...

Quantitative Measurement and Visualization of Biofilm O2 Consumption Rates Inmembrane Filtration Systems

Quantitative measurement and visualization of biofilm O₂ consumption rates inmembrane filtration systems

Biofouling of spiral wound membrane systems

Biofouling of spiral wound membrane systems High quality drinking water can be produced with membrane filtration processes like reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF). Because the global demand for fresh clean water is increasing, these membrane technologies will increase in importance in the coming decades. One of the most serious...