Influence of support media on membrane fouling reduction of water with different organic and inorganic matter content

A number of factorial design experiments were performed to investigate the influence of support media on fouling reduction in a submerged hollow fiber membrane ultrafiltration system filtering synthetic water with different organic and inorganic matter content. Support media was added into a membrane reactor and fouling and water quality parameters were assessed. Linear regression modelling for a factorial design experiment was used to identify important main and interaction effects of parameters that contributed to membrane fouling reduction. The addition of support media into the membrane reactor resulted in 35% - 50% reduction in membrane fouling with different humic acid and Kaolin clay concentrations whereas there was no apparent impact of support media on cellulose. The support media in the membrane reactor did not generally affect any of the water quality measured; however, there was an observable difference in the permeate volume and flux recovery in the presence or absence of support media.