Abstract—The performance of fouling prediction devices (i.e. modified fouling index and crossflow sampler-modified fouling index) operating under constant flux mode for reverse osmosis (RO)/nanofiltration (NF) filtration system was investigated experimentally. The effect of crossflow hydrodynamic, foulant concentration, foulant particle sizes, and membrane resistance were investigated correspond to MFIconst.flux. Three types of foulants (i.e. 70-100 nm colloidal silica, 22 nm colloidal silica, Aldrich humic acid) were adopted. The results showed that the MFIconst.flux values were higher than CFS-MFIconst.flux, particularly for high polydispersed foulants (i.e. 70-100 nm colloidal silica and Aldrich humic acid). The MFIconst.flux values were consistently increased with increasing foulant concentration and membrane resistance. Higher values of MFIconst.flux were observed for polydispersed foulant (i.e. 70-100 nm colloidal silica) than monodispersed foulant (i.e. 22 nm colloidal silica). This study yielded useful insights in understanding the crossflow effect, foulant concentration, foulant particle sizes, and membrane resistance on the RO/NF fouling potential.
Index Terms—Colloidal silica, constant flux, crossflow, humic acid, ultrafiltration.
C. H. Koo is with Faculty of Engineering and Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Genting Kelang, 53300 Setapak, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (e-mail: kooch@utar.edu.my).
A. W. Mohammad and F. Suja’ are with Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia (e-mail: wahabm@eng.ukm.my, fati@eng.ukm.my).
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Cite: C. H. Koo, A. W. Mohammad, and F. Suja’, "Experimental Investigation on Performance of Fouling Prediction Devices for NF/RO System," International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 179-183, 2015.
