Pre-coating of outside-inside capillary UF membranes with iron hydroxide particles to limit non-backwashable fouling during seawater algal blooms

AbstractThis research is structured on two hypotheses in which the first one is that pre-coating method using iron hydroxide particles in combination with ultrafiltration (UF) is able to control the non-backwashable (nBW) fouling in outside-inside UF membrane system caused by transparent exopolymer particles produced by marine algae species, Chaetoceros affinis. The initial assumption is that the success of the pre-coating method strongly depends on the uniform coverage of pre-coat material along the membrane surface that forms a protective layer. The second hypothesis is based on the presumption that a sequestering agent can avoid the growth of the iron hydroxide nanoparticles over time. Pre-coating experiments were performed with 6, 1, and 0.15 mg Fe3+/L coagulant equivalent dose to synthetic seawater spiked with algal organic matter to assess its effect to membrane backwashability, especially the nBW fouling development. The results showed that all of the applied dosages for pre-coating were able to re...