TY - JOUR
T1 - Ceramic membrane defouling (cleaning) by air Nano Bubbles
AU - Ghadimkhani, Aliasghar
AU - Zhang, Wen
AU - Marhaba, Taha
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Research and Development Office of New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) for their financial and instrumental supports. All NJIT Environmental laboratory staff are truly appreciated for their support.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2016/3/1
Y1 - 2016/3/1
N2 - Ceramic membranes are among the most promising technologies for membrane applications, owing to their excellent resistance to mechanical, chemical, and thermal stresses. However, membrane fouling is still an issue that hampers the applications at large scales. Air Nano Bubbles (NBs), due to high mass transfer efficiency, could potentially prevent fouling of ceramic membrane filtration processes. In this study, bench and pilot scale ceramic membrane filtration was performed with air NBs to resist fouling. To simulate fouling, humic acid, as an organic foulant, was applied to the membrane flat sheet surface. Complete membrane clogging was achieved in less than 6 h. Membrane defouling (cleaning) was performed by directly feeding of air NBs to the membrane cells. The surface of the ceramic membrane was superbly cleaned by air NBs, as revealed by atomic force microscope (AFM) images before and after the treatment. The permeate flux recovered to its initial level (e.g., 26.7 × 10-9 m3/m2/s at applied pressure of 275.8 kPa), which indicated that NBs successfully unclogged the pores of the membrane. The integrated ceramic membrane and air NBs system holds potential as an innovative sustainable technology.
AB - Ceramic membranes are among the most promising technologies for membrane applications, owing to their excellent resistance to mechanical, chemical, and thermal stresses. However, membrane fouling is still an issue that hampers the applications at large scales. Air Nano Bubbles (NBs), due to high mass transfer efficiency, could potentially prevent fouling of ceramic membrane filtration processes. In this study, bench and pilot scale ceramic membrane filtration was performed with air NBs to resist fouling. To simulate fouling, humic acid, as an organic foulant, was applied to the membrane flat sheet surface. Complete membrane clogging was achieved in less than 6 h. Membrane defouling (cleaning) was performed by directly feeding of air NBs to the membrane cells. The surface of the ceramic membrane was superbly cleaned by air NBs, as revealed by atomic force microscope (AFM) images before and after the treatment. The permeate flux recovered to its initial level (e.g., 26.7 × 10-9 m3/m2/s at applied pressure of 275.8 kPa), which indicated that NBs successfully unclogged the pores of the membrane. The integrated ceramic membrane and air NBs system holds potential as an innovative sustainable technology.
KW - AFM
KW - Air nano bubbles
KW - Antifouling
KW - Ceramic membranes
KW - Defouling
KW - Fouling
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U2 - 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2015.12.023
DO - 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2015.12.023
M3 - Article
C2 - 26741542
AN - SCOPUS:84959250397
SN - 0045-6535
VL - 146
SP - 379
EP - 384
JO - Chemosphere
JF - Chemosphere
ER -