ULTRAFILTRATION MEMBRANE FOULING CONTROL WITH VARIOUS BACKWASH METHODS FOR WATER TREATMENT

• Main Author: Rita Krishumartani H., Dinda
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Teknik saniter dan perkotaan; teknik perlindungan lingkungan
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/63020
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Water treatment with membrane technology has been widely applied, especially to remove nanoparticles (NP) and colloids. One such membrane technology is ultrafiltration (UF) which has a pore size between 0.01 – 0.10 ?m. The problem that often occurs when using membrane technology for clean water treatment is fouling. The application of backwash is a common physical approach to remove fouling in membrane systems. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of backwash on the performance of the UF membrane due to fouling in water treatment. The raw water is taken from the Cisadane River which is the intake of the IPA Puspiptek Serpong area. However, so that the fouling that occurs is constant during the study, the concentration of Total Suspended Solid (TSS) needs to be controlled at 1000 mg/L. When the concentration of TSS in raw water is 1000 mg/L and flux is 350 L/m2 hours, the fouling condition occurs within 30 minutes, so the filtration time used in this study is 30 minutes. The variables used in this study include flux, backwash duration, and backwash strength, each of which has 3 different conditions, and compares 2 types of backwash water, namely UF permeate and demineralized water. The research design uses the Taguchi method which involves the use of orthogonal arrays to set the parameters that affect the process and the level at which they should be varied. The results showed that the variable that determines the fouling rate with UF permeate as backwash water is the filtration flux, where the percentage contribution is 84%, followed by the backwash duration of 13%. While the fouling rate using demineralized water, the percentage contribution to the filtration flux is 89.67%, the backwash strength is 10.24%. In general, it can be said that the backwash process can eliminate fouling and prolong the filtration process in membrane technology. Backwash using demineralized water will prolong the life of the ultrafiltration membrane compared to UF permeate. Excessive backwash duration and strength results in permeate wastage, and pore clogging.