AWWA MTC57612

In a study of wastewater reclamation for potable reuse, a multiple treatment barrier approach was required to provide safe water as a drinking water source. High-pressure membranes, including nanofiltration (NF) and/or reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, can play an important role in wastewater reclamation as an effective barrier to pathogenic microorganisms, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) that reacts with disinfectants to form disinfection byproducts (DBPs), as well as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) and pharmaceutically-active compounds (PhACs). Recent research suggests that effluent organic matter (EfOM) present in wastewater secondary effluent is a constraint to implementing the use of RO and NF membranes due to the significant role of EfOM in membrane fouling. Soluble microbial products (SMPs) have been found to be a significant fraction of EfOM from biological treatment processes, and their presence contributes to fouling of high-pressure membranes (Barker et al, 2000). This study focused on the role of the SMP associated with the EfOM from wastewater secondary effluents in fouling of high-pressure membranes, i.e., NF and RO membranes. The SMP source (feed) waters were generated from bench-scale sequencing batch reactors (SBR). A glucose solution was used as carbon/energy source for microorganisms in the activated sludge system. Fouling of high-pressure membranes by the SMP was investigated. Includes 6 references, tables, figures.