Design, construction and evaluation OFAN experimental ceramic membrane facility with investigation into fouling control

During the past decade, the growth in membrane research and technology has advanced and multiplied in usage for many industries including water and wastewater. A major limitation of the application is due to membrane fouling. In this work, the construction, start-up calibration and testing of a membrane unit, as well as an examination into the fouling and cleaning aspect of the ceramic membranes are investigated. An aqueous solution containing precipitate is fed to the unit in order to observe fouling behaviour. Effluent wastewater from a bioreactor, CUBEN, is also tested with the unit and membrane cleaning is performed using various chemical agents. For both chemically enhanced backwash (CEB) and membrane soaking, hydrochloric acid cleaning agent «1 %w) produces best flux recoveries of 72.7% and 82%, respectively. All permeate effluent analysis, resulted in a suspended solids concentration <3 mgIL and turbidities. < 1 NTU, which both meet Ontario regulation limits.