This paper decribes a study to evaluate the effect of ozone as pre-treatment with ceramic membrane filtration with a focus on permeability, filterability and to understand ozone-induced particle destabilization in high and low concentration of calcium and magnesium....

This work examines the interaction between organic matter and metal oxides in ceramic membrane treatment and indicate that both size exclusion and adsorption phenomena occur (on surface, inside pores)....

Fouling of RO membranes is examined one at lab scale with the emphasis on investigating the changes in the relative composition of foulant material as a function of running time for a given feed water quality. Fouling characterization was performed by ultra-structural, chemical and microbial analyses. This comparative analysis of fouled membranes h...

Research conducted to examine the effect of transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) in the fouling of ultrafiltration ceramic membranes used to treat seawater from the Red Sea. Although ceramic membranes are known to be robust against high pressures encountered in backwashing and cleaning chemicals, the study was undertaken to determine optimal flux...

Forward osmosis (FO) is a rapidly-growing membrane technology that can be used as an energy-saving alternative to standard membrane water treatment systems such as reverse osmosis (RO). FO in combination with low pressure RO can be applied for water reuse. FO is a membrane filtration process driven by the osmotic pressure difference originating fro...

The study of forward osmosis (FO) membranes is increasing in importance due to their well-known advantages (low-energy consumption and reduced fouling) when compared to high-energy consuming membrane technologies such as reverse osmosis (RO). This research focused on the characterization of the natural organic matter (NOM) fraction causing fouling ...

An energy source (high salinity wastewater/seawater) has been identified using microbial electrochemical technologies (MET). Energy generation as a result of combining microbial desalination and electrodyalysis (microbial fuel cells, MFC) is shown to produce electrical power generation. Desalination rates and max power generation may be improved...

Adsorption desalanation has potential to reduce cost by using solely renewable energy heat sources, particularly when used with combined-cycle solar and geothermal energy sources. Successful pilot testing of adsorption desalanation has been shown powered by renewable energy at 55C to 80C....

This paper discusses hydrophobic microporous flat sheet membranes made of poly tetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and poly propylene (PP) were explored for desalting real Red Sea water using direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) process. This paper describes reported flux performance membrane characterization, water contact angle as well as other rel...

This paper discusses the use of ceramic membranes to treat impaired quality source waters (e.g., seawater and wastewater) in seawater pretreatment and water reuse applications. The paper also covers n-line coagulation and a new generation ceramic membrane which has uniform pore-structure, manufactured by anodic oxidation instead of sintering. Discu...

Subsurface intakes can be used as part of the pretreatment system for seawater reverse osmosis facilities. Wells of various designs and galleries are being used for intakes at many site globally in order to reduce pretreatment costs, chemical usage, biofouling potential, and environmental impacts (entrainment and impingement). The goal of using a...

This paper discussed the theoretical and experimental validation of a water gap membrane distillation (WGMD) process that has been successfully tested for seawater desalination. A detailed investigation on the influence of thickness of the water gap was carried in this study. Water vapor flux enhancement in the WGMD process is been described with t...

This work focused on viable pre-treatments options available for managing fouling of ceramic membranes caused by impaired water sources, emphasizing wastewater effluent and high-NOM surface water. Hence, hybrid processes composed of in-line coagulation or powdered activation carbon was employed. Cleaning protocols are also discussed in this researc...

Forward osmosis (FO), an osmotic-driven membrane process, has been gaining attention for being a low-energy alternative for several applications usually performed by pressure-driven membranes, such as reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF). The FO process requires a draw solution (DS) to create the osmotic pressure as a driving force to separ...

Transparent expolymer particles (TEP) are believed to be a key organic compound that leads to membrane biofouling in SWRO systems. The sticky nature, high surface reactivity and micro-gel character of TEP play a major role in a membrane fouling, because deposition on the membrane surface acts as culture media for bacterial growth and as a depositio...

Subsurface intake systems are generally believed to deliver higher quality of feed water compared to open-ocean intake systems. Some new research results are reported from several desalination plants; two plants located on the Red Sea and one on the Caribbean Sea. These facilities were assessed to compare the feedwater fouling potential of the open...

It is essential to use alternative energy, mainly solar, sources to meet the growing demand for desalination and being environmentally friendly. Most solar driven plants are connected to the grid because the exxisting desalination technologies require continuous energy supply for stable operation, which cannot be assured by solar energy alone. In t...

Transparent-exopolymer-particles (TEP) are reported as a significant contributor to organic fouling of low pressure membranes and biofouling of RO membranes. TEP-like substances are generally synthesised from algae and bacteria, but most research only investigates algal TEP instead of bacterial TEP. Results show bacterial mixed TEP caused severe fo...

Innovative thermal/membrane hybrid desalination method is discussed. Use of solar power is also discussed....

This presentation outlines the use of Nanofiltration to enhance the retention time of OMPs in a Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR) and the overall removal via biodegradation as well as through direct rejection, especially for moderately biodegradable and refractory compounds. Although better performance was achieved with SBR-NF than SBR alone, it woul...

Cartridge filter performance at Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) plants were studied at both open-ocean intake and well intake feed. The well intake showed no improvement in feed for NOM, bacteria and algae concentrations but did see an increase in bacteria concentrations. The open-ocean intake showed a reduction in biopolymer, bacteria, and algae c...

This PowerPoint examines the role of membranes in Seawater desalination both past, current and future...

This study was conducted to investigate the relationship among the reverse diffusion of fertilizer draw solute, bacteria community and bio-methane production rate in the FDFO-AnMBR system. Three fertilizers were evaluated in this study, namely KCl, KNO3 and KH2PO4. Results showed that bio-methane production decreased with the increase in reverse fe...