Analysis of fouling development under dynamic membrane filtration operation

This research is a contribution towards evaluating the appropriate fouling mechanism responsible for the flux decline under dynamic membrane (DM) filtration and its formation mechanism by using gravity-driven filtration in a specifically designed experimental setup. Series of extended short term filtration experiments were performed at varying operating conditions of mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) concentrations, trans-membrane pressures (TMP) and mesh pore sizes. Blocking models were applied to identify the fouling mechanisms occurring in DM development. The results demonstrated that cake filtration model can adequately describe fouling mechanisms during DM filtration. According to the analysis of variance, DM development, as described by flux (J) trends during filtration, was significantly affected only by MLSS concentration while effluent turbidity was significantly affected by MLSS concentration and TMP. On the contrary, J and effluent turbidity trends during filtration were not significantly influenced by mesh pore size, at least in the range used in this study (10–200 μm).