Journal article
A comparison of commercial reverse osmosis membrane characteristics and performance under alginate fouling conditions
A Widjaya, T Hoang, GW Stevens, SE Kentish
Separation and Purification Technology | Published : 2012
Abstract
In this study a range of commercial polyamide membranes intended for reverse osmosis service are compared. Significant differences in membrane chemistry are detected through the use of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. However, these changes did not translate into major differences in physico-chemical properties such as membrane roughness, contact angle or zeta potential. The permeability and rejection behavior of the membranes followed a classic tradeoff relationship, with high permeability leading to low rejection and vice versa. This tradeoff relationship persisted even after the membranes were fouled with alginic acid for 4 h. Conversely, the use of alginic acid in the presence of calciu..
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Awarded by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
Funding Acknowledgements
The authors thank a reviewer for insightful comments that have lead to a better interpretation of their results. They also acknowledge the ARC Research Council (DP1093815) and the CSIRO Cluster Water for a Healthy Country Flagship (Advanced Membrane Design Cluster) for the financial support of this work. The Particulate Fluids Processing Centre, a Special Research Centre of the Australian Research Council is also acknowledged for infrastructure support. The authors thank Dow Filmtec (c), GE Water (c), Toray Inc (c) and CSM (c) for providing the RO membranes; Alex Duan for his help in conducting the XPS analysis and Simon Crawford for FESEM imaging. Additionally, Hirra Azher and Joko Satrio Horas are acknowledged for their involvement in this project.