Application of ceramic membrane for seawater desalination pretreatment

Abstract

AbstractIn this study, a ceramic microfiltration membrane was examined as a pretreatment of reverse osmosis (RO) process for seawater desalination. The performance of ceramic membrane with and without coagulant were compared in terms of permeate qualities and transmembrane pressure (TMP). Various parameters were analyzed, such as turbidity, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), UV254, SDI15 (silt density index), and TMP. When ceramic membrane system was operated without coagulation at flux 2 m3/m2 d, SDI15 value and turbidity of permeate water was less than 3 and 0.1 NTU, respectively. However, SDI15 and turbidity were reduced to 0.9 and 0.076 NTU, respectively, when coagulant of 6 mg/L was applied. The comparison of TMP on different membrane flux was controlled flux 2 and 5, 10 m3/m2 d with and without coagulation. The increase of TMP was significantly mitigated from 90 to 13.8 kPa at flux 5 m3/m2 d, from 87.4 to 21.5 kPa at flux 10 m3/m2 d, respectively, by coagulation followed by filtration. Ceramic MF syste...