Wastewater treatment by membrane ultrafiltration enhanced with ultrasound: Effect of membrane flux and ultrasonic frequency

Laura Borea; Vincenzo Naddeo; Marwa S Shalaby; Tiziano Zarra; Vincenzo Belgiorno; Heba Abdalla; Ahmed M Shaban

doi:10.1016/j.ultras.2017.06.013

Wastewater treatment by membrane ultrafiltration enhanced with ultrasound: Effect of membrane flux and ultrasonic frequency

Ultrasonics. 2018 Feb:83:42-47. doi: 10.1016/j.ultras.2017.06.013. Epub 2017 Jun 20.

Authors

Laura Borea¹, Vincenzo Naddeo², Marwa S Shalaby³, Tiziano Zarra¹, Vincenzo Belgiorno¹, Heba Abdalla³, Ahmed M Shaban⁴

Affiliations

¹ Sanitary Environmental Engineering Division (SEED), Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, 84084 Fisciano, SA, Italy.
² Sanitary Environmental Engineering Division (SEED), Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, 84084 Fisciano, SA, Italy. Electronic address: vnaddeo@unisa.it.
³ Chemical Engineering and Pilot Plant Department, Engineering Research Division, National Research Centre, 33 El Bohouth Street (Former El Tahrir Street), P.O. Box 12622, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.
⁴ Water Pollution Research Department, National Research Centre, 33 El Bohouth Street (Former El Tahrir Street), P.O. Box 12622, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.

PMID: 28662777
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultras.2017.06.013

Abstract

Membrane ultrafiltration is increasingly applied for wastewater treatment and reuse, even though membrane fouling still represents one of the main drawbacks of this technology. In the last years, innovative strategies for membrane fouling control have been developed, such as the combination of membrane processes with ultrasound (US). In present work, the application of membrane ultrafiltration and its combination with US were studied, evaluating the influence on the performance of the treatment and membrane fouling formation of two membrane fluxes, 75 and 150L/m²h, along with two US frequencies, 35 and 150kHz. The results observed showed that the combination of membrane ultrafiltration with US, respect to the filtration process alone, reduced membrane fouling rates to a greater extent at the higher membrane flux and lower US frequency applied, reaching a reduction of 57.33% at 150L/m²h and 35kHz. Furthermore, higher organic matter and turbidity removals were observed at higher frequency (130kHz). The results obtained highlights the applicability of this combined process for the upgrading of membrane ultrafiltration and as an alternative option to conventional tertiary wastewater treatments.

Keywords: Fouling; Membrane flux; Sonication; Ultrasound; Wastewater reclaim.