Evaluation of ceramics adsorption filter as a pretreatment for seawater reverse-osmosis desalination

Seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) is the most energy-efficient process for desalination to produce drinking water from seawater. However, its sustainability is still challenged by membrane fouling. Appropriate feed water quality is one of the crucial prerequisites for SWRO operation. In the current st...

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Main Authors: Wang, Jingwei, Sim, Lee Nuang, Ho, Jia Shin, Nakano, Keiko, Kinoshita, Yusuke, Sekiguchi, Kenichiro, Chong, Tzyy Haur
Other Authors: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2023
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/168810
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1688102023-06-21T15:34:52Z Evaluation of ceramics adsorption filter as a pretreatment for seawater reverse-osmosis desalination Wang, Jingwei Sim, Lee Nuang Ho, Jia Shin Nakano, Keiko Kinoshita, Yusuke Sekiguchi, Kenichiro Chong, Tzyy Haur School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute Singapore Membrane Technology Centre Engineering::Civil engineering::Water resources Seawater Reverse Osmosis Membrane Fouling Seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) is the most energy-efficient process for desalination to produce drinking water from seawater. However, its sustainability is still challenged by membrane fouling. Appropriate feed water quality is one of the crucial prerequisites for SWRO operation. In the current study, a ceramic adsorption filter (CAF), which was predominantly coated with an aluminum-based adsorbent (i.e., Alumina, Al2O3), was employed to enhance the pretreatment performance of SWRO. The fouling performance of SWRO pre-treated with a CAF was evaluated by feeding with real ultrafiltration (UF)-filtrated seawater collected from a seawater desalination R&D facility in Singapore. The flux decline profile showed that the presence of CAF after UF could mitigate around 10-30% of SWRO fouling. Based on the autopsy of the fouled SWRO membranes, it was observed that SWRO with CAF pre-treatment and daily regeneration could alleviate around 77.5% of Ca-induced inorganic fouling as well as 76% of lower biofouling. The present work highlights the potential of applying adsorption technology to enhance pre-treatment performance to extend the lifespan of SWRO membranes. Coupling the adsorbents on a ceramic filter should be a useful way to ease their implementation, i.e., inline adsorption and re-generation. Published version 2023-06-19T07:52:50Z 2023-06-19T07:52:50Z 2022 Journal Article Wang, J., Sim, L. N., Ho, J. S., Nakano, K., Kinoshita, Y., Sekiguchi, K. & Chong, T. H. (2022). Evaluation of ceramics adsorption filter as a pretreatment for seawater reverse-osmosis desalination. Membranes, 12(12), 1209-. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes12121209 2077-0375 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/168810 10.3390/membranes12121209 36557116 2-s2.0-85144616098 12 12 1209 en Membranes © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Engineering::Civil engineering::Water resources
Seawater Reverse Osmosis
Membrane Fouling
spellingShingle Engineering::Civil engineering::Water resources
Seawater Reverse Osmosis
Membrane Fouling
Wang, Jingwei
Sim, Lee Nuang
Ho, Jia Shin
Nakano, Keiko
Kinoshita, Yusuke
Sekiguchi, Kenichiro
Chong, Tzyy Haur
Evaluation of ceramics adsorption filter as a pretreatment for seawater reverse-osmosis desalination
description Seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) is the most energy-efficient process for desalination to produce drinking water from seawater. However, its sustainability is still challenged by membrane fouling. Appropriate feed water quality is one of the crucial prerequisites for SWRO operation. In the current study, a ceramic adsorption filter (CAF), which was predominantly coated with an aluminum-based adsorbent (i.e., Alumina, Al2O3), was employed to enhance the pretreatment performance of SWRO. The fouling performance of SWRO pre-treated with a CAF was evaluated by feeding with real ultrafiltration (UF)-filtrated seawater collected from a seawater desalination R&D facility in Singapore. The flux decline profile showed that the presence of CAF after UF could mitigate around 10-30% of SWRO fouling. Based on the autopsy of the fouled SWRO membranes, it was observed that SWRO with CAF pre-treatment and daily regeneration could alleviate around 77.5% of Ca-induced inorganic fouling as well as 76% of lower biofouling. The present work highlights the potential of applying adsorption technology to enhance pre-treatment performance to extend the lifespan of SWRO membranes. Coupling the adsorbents on a ceramic filter should be a useful way to ease their implementation, i.e., inline adsorption and re-generation.
author2 School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
author_facet School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Wang, Jingwei
Sim, Lee Nuang
Ho, Jia Shin
Nakano, Keiko
Kinoshita, Yusuke
Sekiguchi, Kenichiro
Chong, Tzyy Haur
format Article
author Wang, Jingwei
Sim, Lee Nuang
Ho, Jia Shin
Nakano, Keiko
Kinoshita, Yusuke
Sekiguchi, Kenichiro
Chong, Tzyy Haur
author_sort Wang, Jingwei
title Evaluation of ceramics adsorption filter as a pretreatment for seawater reverse-osmosis desalination
title_short Evaluation of ceramics adsorption filter as a pretreatment for seawater reverse-osmosis desalination
title_full Evaluation of ceramics adsorption filter as a pretreatment for seawater reverse-osmosis desalination
title_fullStr Evaluation of ceramics adsorption filter as a pretreatment for seawater reverse-osmosis desalination
title_full_unstemmed Evaluation of ceramics adsorption filter as a pretreatment for seawater reverse-osmosis desalination
title_sort evaluation of ceramics adsorption filter as a pretreatment for seawater reverse-osmosis desalination
publishDate 2023
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/168810
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