Full Description

Application of ceramic membranes in water treatment has been limited mainlyby high membrane prices and low packing densities. However, new ceramic membranes mayovercome this limitation. A ceramic membrane by NGK Insulators Ltd., Japan currentlycompetes in the drinking water treatment market. IWW Water Center, Germany, investigated theoperational performance and economic feasibility of this ceramic membrane in a one year pilotstudy of direct river water treatment with the hybrid process of coagulation and microfiltration.The objective of this study was to investigate flux, recovery, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) retention performance and todetermine optimum operating conditions of NGK's ceramic membrane filtration system withspecial regards to economical aspects. Temporarily, the performance of the ceramic membranewas challenged under adverse conditions. During pilot plant operation, river water with turbiditiesbetween 3 and 100 FNU was treated. Membrane flux was increased incrementally from 80 to300 l/msup2/suph resulting in recoveries between 95.9 and 98.9 %. A DOC removal between about 20and 35 % was achieved. The pilot study and the subsequent economical evaluation showed thepotential to provide a reliable and cost competitive process option for water treatment. Therobustness of the ceramic membrane filtration process makes it attractive for a broad range ofwater treatment applications and, due to low maintenance requirements, also suitable fordrinking water treatment in developing countries. Includes 7 references, figures.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 03/01/2007 Number of Pages: 11 File Size: 1 file , 480 KB