Techno-economical approach of GAC and microfiltration as a coagulant-free pre-treatment of seawater desalination

Membrane filtration is lately becoming a popular process for the pre-treatment of seawater in reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination. The common practiced method of controlling membrane fouling and reducing the treatment costs usually involves a short coagulation step prior to the membrane filtration. In this work, a study of the feasibility of a coagulation free microfiltration (MF) as pre-treatment for SWRO desalination from a technical, economical and environmental point of view was performed. The experimental part included filtration of seawater from the Yellow Sea in Korea both with and without granular activated carbon (GAC) pre-treatment using a laboratory scale MF plant and different constant fluxes in outside-in dead-end mode. The results show that a coagulant and GAC free, stand-alone microfi ltration using low fluxes and intense chemical cleanings is technically possible. When compared to a state of the art coagulation-MF, such a process could be economically and environmentally favourable when accounting for the lower energy demand and the relinquishment of the sludge treatment system.