AWWA MTC61206

This study addresses the possibility for nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membrane processes to serve as an alternative to remove low levels of selected antibiotics from wastewaters and surface waters given changing water conditions such as pH and presence of natural organic matter (NOM). Preliminary experimental results obtained with a dead-end filtration apparatus suggest that adsorption of antibiotics onto the membrane surface is negligible. However, removal is greatly affected by changes in pH due to changes in electrostatic repulsion between charged antibiotics and membrane surfaces. Both the pore diffusion model for NF and the solution diffusion model for RO will be applied to further understand the mechanisms and trends behind the experimental data. Includes 17 references, table, figure.