Powder Activated Carbon Pretreatment of a Microfiltration Membrane for the Treatment of Surface Water

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Yali Song³  Bingzhi Dong¹  Naiyun Gao¹  Xiaoyan Ma² 

[1] College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China; E-Mail:;College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310032, China; E-Mail:;School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, Hangzhou 310023, China; E-Mail:

关键词: surface water;    PAC;    microfiltration;    membrane flux;    organic matter;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph120911269

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

This study focused on the effect of powder activated carbon (PAC) adsorption on microfiltration (MF) membrane performance. The results showed that PAC pretreatment offered high organic matter removal rates for both dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and ultraviolet absorbance at 254 nm (UV₂₅₄) during 10–200 mg/L PAC dosage. The removal efficiencies of organic matter by MF membrane filtration decreased with the increase of organic matter removal rate by PAC adsorption. PAC mainly removed organic matter of about 3 kDa molecular weight (MW). MF membrane maintained more than 5 kDa MW organic matter on the membrane after PAC adsorption. The results of membrane filtration indicated that PAC pretreatment slightly promoted membrane flux, regardless of PAC dosage. It seems that the organic matter fouling membrane was concentrated in more than 3 kDa MW. PAC removed markedly less than 3 kDa MW organic matter and had less effect on more than 3 kDa organic matter. Thus, PAC cannot reduce membrane fouling.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.