Full Description

The ability to quickly identify breaches or system breakthrough within the membrane process iscritical to ensure the consistent supply of high quality water and compliance with drinking waterguidelines and regulations. Direct integrity methodologies such as pressure decay and bubblepoint tests are capable of identifying and isolating integrity breaches within a membraneoperating system. However, the intermittent nature of these tests does not provide real-timeinformation as to the performance of a membrane operating system. Therefore, the integration ofcontinuous indirect integrity monitoring of membrane permeate streams during operation isrecommended within the proposed guidelines of the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Membrane Filtration GuidanceManual, such as turbidity meters and particle counters. Under challenged membrane operatingconditions, such as the treatment of high natural organic matter (NOM) source water or filter backwash water (FBWW)applications, the sensitivity of these monitoring tools in detecting initial system breakthrough asdefined by chronic increases in dissolved material (e.g., NOM, metals) may not be optimal.Therefore, the purpose of the present research investigation was to evaluate indirect integritytesting methodologies on a pilot-scale ultrafiltration (UF) membrane treating FBWW. Indirect integrity testmethodologies were evaluated on an intentionally compromised system to determine thecapabilities of these monitoring procedures in detecting individual fiber pinholes. The two mostcommonly employed indirect integrity procedures, namely particle counting and turbiditymeasurements on the membrane permeate failed to detect the intentional breach created in themembrane operating system. However, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and colormeasurements showed promising results in the ability of these alternative indirect test proceduresto identify significant increases in the concentration of dissolved contaminants within thepermeate stream. Includes 4 references, table.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 11/01/2005 Number of Pages: 5File Size: 1 file , 180 KB