A pilot-scale hybrid municipal wastewater reclamation system using combined coagulation and disk filtration, ultrafiltration, and reverse osmosis: Removal of nutrients and micropollutants, and characterization of membrane foulants

Abstract

A pilot-scale municipal wastewater reclamation system using combined coagulation and disk filtration (CC-DF), ultrafiltration (UF), and reverse osmosis (RO) membrane has been built to investigate removal of water contaminants and fouling mitigation. The reclaimed water using the pilot system could meet draft regulations on wastewater reuse of the California Department of Public Health (DOC: 0.5 mgC/L; TN: 5 mgN/L). The removal of micropolluants by the CC-DF process and UF could not be evaluated by their MW, Log D, and charge characteristics. However, they were identified as governing factors affecting the removal of micropollutants by the RD. The CC-DF process might effectively remove particulate materials capable of contributing to cake layer formation on the UF membrane surfaces but the residual coagulants provided a strong effect on fouling formation of the UF membrane. Thus, hydrophobic fractions of the desorbed UF membrane foulants were higher than those of the desorbed RD membrane foulants. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved