Evaluation of Pre-Treatment Technologies for Phosphorous Removal from Drinking Water to Mitigate Membrane Biofouling
IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering 2017
Marta Zemīte, Kristīna Kokina, Linda Mežule, Jānis Rubulis, Kamila Gruškeviča, Tālis Juhna

Membranes are widely used for the treatment of various solutions. However, membrane fouling remains the limiting factor for their usage, setting biofouling as the most severe type of it. Therefore, the production of biologically stable water prior to membranes is important. Since lack of phosphorus may hinder the growth of microorganisms, the aim of this research is to evaluate the effect of microbially available phosphorus (MAP) removal via affordable water pre-treatment methods (adsorption, biofiltration, electrocoagulation) on bacterial growth. Four cylindrical reactors were installed at an artificially recharged groundwater station. Further temperature influence and carbon limitation were tested for biofiltration technology. The amount of MAP and total cell count was measured by flow cytometry. The results showed that at lower temperatures electrocoagulation performed the best, resulting in complete MAP removal (detection limit 6.27x10^-3μg P/l). Sorbent demonstrated MAP removal of 70-90%. Biomass did not have any noteworthy results at +8°C, however, at +19°C MAP removal of around 80% was achieved. Main conclusions obtained within this study are: (i) tested technologies effectively eliminate MAP levels; (ii) temperature has a significant effect on MAP removal in a bioreactor, (iii) multi-barrier approach might be necessary for better P limitation that might prolong operating time of a membrane.


Keywords
Drinking water, Microbially available phosphorus
DOI
10.1088/1757-899X/251/1/012127
Hyperlink
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/251/1/012127/meta

Zemīte, M., Tihomirova, K., Mežule, L., Rubulis, J., Gruškeviča, K., Juhna, T. Evaluation of Pre-Treatment Technologies for Phosphorous Removal from Drinking Water to Mitigate Membrane Biofouling. In: IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, Latvia, Rīga, 27-29 September, 2017. Rīga: IOP Publishing, 2017, pp.1-8. ISSN 1757-8981. e-ISSN 1757-899X. Available from: doi:10.1088/1757-899X/251/1/012127

Publication language
English (en)
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