Full Description

Nanofiltration (NF) membranes are increasingly becoming an option for drinkingwater treatment. Large organic compounds like polysaccharides and humics areclearly retained by this kind of membrane. The question whether nanofiltrationoffers an appropriate barrier for low molecular weight (LMW) organic compounds isstill controversial. These compounds play an important role in terms of microbialregrowth potential.Previous studies (Escobar et al., 2000; Lee et al., 2005; Park et al., 2005) havealready assessed this problem, focusing their research on either thecharacterization of the natural organic matter (NOM) or on the microbial regrowthpotential. Only few data presenting simultaneous analysis of the fractions of NOMwere currently available. In this study, the concentration of different fractions oforganic matter and the assimilable organic carbon (AOC) fraction of differentwaters processed by nanofiltration as well as, for comparison, reverse osmosiswere measured. Tests on flat sheet membranes using natural water with andwithout addition of low organic acids were performed. The goal was to investigateto what extent LMW organics and AOC are retained by NF. Includes 6 references, figures.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 11/01/2006 Number of Pages: 5File Size: 1 file , 330 KB