CBE Research Initiative:

Biological Pretreatment

This new research area seeks to apply information obtained through previous industrial contacts and academic research to the problem of reducing biofouling in components of clean or ultrapure water systems.

Goals:

• Design a biological unit process for removing organic matter upstream of sensitive clean water components.
• Optimize the process for specific applications, including the use of preoxidation of the natural organic matter.
• Devise methods for removing material detached from the biological process in the effluent water.
• Develop monitoring tools to assist in assaying the efficacy of the treatment process.

Highlights:

Industrial Contacts. The members of the group have been making contact with and talking to industrial representatives receptive to the idea of biological treatment for clean water systems. We have received two fouled reverse osmosis membranes that have been analyzed in-house.

Operation of Laboratory Test Reactors. Columns have been built to test the premise of biological removal of organic matter to prevent downstream fouling of treatment and/or distribution system surfaces. Promising results have been obtained to date: removals of organic carbon by the process has been up to 60% with a visible reduction in downstream fouling.

Monitoring Methods. Considerable thought has been given to appropriate methods to determine efficacy of the biological pretreatment step. Bench-scale membrane systems for the prediction of the fouling of reverse osmosis membranes downstream from a biological pretreatment step have been designed.  These units allow for both tangential and through flow.

For more information, e-mail Anne Camper.