AWWA MTC61150

This is an extended abstract only of a project co-funded by American Water Works Association Research Foundation, Project #2945, that involved determining the rejection of a large number of trace organics by different nanofiltration (NF) membranes on lab and bench scale. It was identified that membrane properties as well as the physico-chemical properties of the compounds have a large influence on the removal efficiency. Furthermore, scale up from bench scale to full scale will result in a lower overall plant rejection because of the concentration effect at high recovery. The experimental data were used to develop a model including mass transfer properties to predict full scale rejections. Mass transfer properties were related to physical properties (diffusivity, molecular weight, molecular volume) as well as more general water properties as pH. The results show that many compounds can be removed to a large extent using NF, but some compounds require another treatment step. Includes table, figures.