Efficient fouling control using outer-selective hollow fiber thin-film composite membranes for osmotic membrane bioreactor applications

Van Huy Tran; Sungil Lim; Dong Suk Han; Nirenkumar Pathak; Nawshad Akther; Sherub Phuntsho; Hyunwoong Park; Ho Kyong Shon

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2019.03.002

Efficient fouling control using outer-selective hollow fiber thin-film composite membranes for osmotic membrane bioreactor applications

Bioresour Technol. 2019 Jun:282:9-17. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2019.03.002. Epub 2019 Mar 1.

Authors

Van Huy Tran¹, Sungil Lim¹, Dong Suk Han², Nirenkumar Pathak¹, Nawshad Akther¹, Sherub Phuntsho¹, Hyunwoong Park³, Ho Kyong Shon⁴

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater (CTWW), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia.
² Center for Advanced Materials (CAM), Research Complex H10, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar.
³ School of Energy Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, South Korea.
⁴ Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater (CTWW), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia. Electronic address: hokyong.shon-1@uts.edu.au.

PMID: 30849738
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2019.03.002

Abstract

This paper investigates the efficiency of fouling mitigation methods using a novel outer selective hollow fiber thin-film composite forward osmosis (OSHF TFC FO) membrane for osmosis membrane bioreactor (OMBR) system treating municipal wastewater. Two home-made membrane modules having similar transport properties were used. Two operation regimes with three different fouling mitigation strategies were utilized to test the easiness of membrane for fouling cleaning. These two membrane modules demonstrated high performance with high initial water flux of 14.4 LMH and 14.1 LMH and slow increase rate of mixed liquor's salinity in the bioreactor using 30 g/L NaCl as draw solution. OMBR system showed high removals of total organic carbon and NH4 + -N (>98%). High fouling cleaning efficiency was achieved using OSHF TFC FO membrane with different fouling control methods. These results showed that this membrane is suitable for OMBR applications due to its high performance and its simplicity for fouling mitigation.

Keywords: Membrane fouling control; Municipal wastewater treatment; Osmotic membrane bioreactor; Outer-selective hollow fiber; Thin-film composite.

MeSH terms

Bioreactors*
Osmosis
Salinity
Wastewater

Substances

Waste Water