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IMPACT OF OPTIMISED CONTROL OF THE PRE‐COAGULATION REGIME DURING ULTRA‐FILTRATION TREATMENT OF RAW UPLAND WATERS
Author(s) -
Price Robert,
Hankins Nick
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
water and environment journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1747-6593
pISSN - 1747-6585
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-6593.2005.tb00572.x
Subject(s) - backwashing , fouling , coagulation , ultrafiltration (renal) , membrane fouling , filtration (mathematics) , chemistry , raw water , pulp and paper industry , water treatment , flocculation , environmental engineering , membrane , chromatography , environmental science , mathematics , mechanical engineering , psychology , biochemistry , statistics , psychiatry , engineering , inlet
The effect of controlling the pre‐coagulation regime on downstream ultrafiltration of raw upland waters has been investigated. It has been shown that zeta potential can be used to detect changes in the coagulation process and hence to determine appropriate dosage levels. This is important, as incomplete coagulation has a detrimental effect on ultrafiltration membrane performance, particularly in terms of fouling caused by excess iron. Submerged hollow‐fibre membrane units yield superior performance with pre‐coagulation and sufficient slow mixing of coagulant guarantees high permeate flow recovery after backwashing. Fouling by natural organic matter can be remedied by conventional cleaning techniques. However, fouling due to excess iron can only be removed by heating the cleaning solution. The associated costs are thus two‐fold; that of excess coagulant and that of cleaning.