Fouling of organic fractionation on ultrafiltration membrane for drinking water treatment： a case study

The aim of this study was to obtain a better understanding of the range of organic molecular weight （MW） causing membrane fouling through the comparison between direct UF and in-line coagulation （without settling）/UF process. The experimental results indicated that, when raw water with organics was treated and the MW of more than half of the organics was less than 1 kDa, membrane fouling was rather serious by only UF and coagulation could improve the fouling for the treatment of raw water. Besides, coagulation/UF could remove organics in each region, and organics with MW greater than 30 kDa were the most possible matters causing membrane fouling, while organics with MW less than 1 kDa were in due to few organics removed. Therefore, organics with MW greater them brane foulingibly responsible for membrane fouling 30 kDa were the major factor of membrane fouling.