Bacterial production of transparent exopolymer particles during static and laboratory-based cross-flow experiments

Abstract

Biofouling of seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) membranes represents one of the leading causes of performance deterioration in the desalination industry. This work investigates the biofouling potential of microbial communities present in a reverse osmosis (RO) feed tank. As an example, water from the RO feed tank of the Penneshaw desalination plant (Kangaroo Island, South Australia) was used in a static biofilm formation experiment. Cultures of the indigenous biofilms formed during the static experiment showed that α-Proteobacteria and γ-Proteobacteria accounted for nearly 80% of the classes of bacteria present in the RO feed tank. Pseudomonas sp. was identified as the major species and isolat..