Prediction of reverse osmosis fouling using the feed fouling monitor and salt tracer response technique

In this study an on-line feed fouling monitor (FFM) combined with a salt-tracer-response technique (STRT) was used to predict reverse osmosis (RO) fouling under constant flux filtration. The FFM was used to capture foulant loads using a small 'collection' ultrafiltration (UF) membrane at the same crossflow hydrodynamics as in the RO experiments. A UF membrane was used in the FFM to decrease the monitoring time and improve the accuracy because it is more responsive to the fouling resistance than an RO membrane. Since the deposits captured by the FFM are potential RO foulants, the resulting information can be used to predict the transmembrane pressure (TMP) rise for the RO membrane. The STRT was used to measure the development of concentration polarization that is important in estimating the cake-enhanced osmotic pressure (CEOP) contribution. A model was developed that includes both the cake resistance and the CEOP effect due to cake formation and was used to predict RO fouling trends. Model foulants were humic acid and colloidal silica. The major focus was on organic fouling by humic acid (20 mg/l) in 2000 mg/l sodium chloride (NaCl) as the ionic background for the RO and FFM fouling experiments. The RO and FFM fouling experiments were conducted at different constant fluxes using the same feed solutions and at the same crossflow velocity (0.1 m/s). The results indicated that higher fluxes cause an increased fouling rate for both RO and the FFM for both types of solute. The CEOP effect, measured by the salt-tracer-response in the RO experiments, was also strongly enhanced by the flux. The model was validated by plotting the predicted RO transmembrane pressure (TMP) as a function of time for different fluxes based on the resistivity from the FFM and the CP obtained from the STRT. For both organic foulants and colloidal silica the results show that the combination of the FFM and salt-tracer-response STRT is a promising method to provide a good estimate of the RO fouling trends. It also underscores the contribution of CEOP to the increase in TMP during RO fouling of saline feeds.