AWWA MTC57603

Use of ultrafiltration technology for drinking water treatment applications may necessitate the incorporation of additional treatment processes in order to comply with drinking water regulations pertaining to organic matters, taste and odor causing compounds and disinfection byproducts in cases where difficult surface water supplies are in use. Such an association of treatment processes can improve ultrafiltration performance. The use of multi-process treatment lines for drinking water production is also being driven by the multi-barrier concept for disinfection applications. This association of conventional coagulation/clarification and ultrafiltration treatment technologies is relatively new, and has a great range of development potential. This paper summarizes the results of pilot-scale studies conducted to evaluate the use of enhanced coagulation upstream of ultrafiltration treatment with a hollow fiber inside-out AquasourceTM membrane. The impact of water quality, inorganic coagulant chemistry and membrane material on ultrafiltration performance and operational parameters such as cleaning strategy and cleaning frequency is presented. Furthermore, the pilot-scale results are compared with two years of operating data from a full-scale application currently employed at the Bexar Met drinking water plant in Von Ormy, Texas. Opportunities to optimize the treatment strategy are considered so as to evaluate the future development of this enhanced clarification process for surface water treatment applications. Includes 10 references, tables, figures.