Effects of a novel bimetallic catalytic biofilter-based pretreatment technique on the form of ultrafiltration membrane fouling

Abstract Pretreatments of influents using bimetallic catalytic biofilter (BC-biofilter) can help to reduce transmembrane pressures. For ultrafiltration membranes coupled with a conventional biofilter pretreatment, the cake layer resistance accounts for 25% of the total resistance. However, for those coupled with BC-biofilter pretreatment, the cake layer resistance accounts only for 12.5% of the total resistance. Confocal laser scanning microscopy is employed to determine the porosity of cake layer. It is found that ultrafiltration membranes with BC-biofilter pretreatment show a cake layer porosity of up to 0.56 or greater, whereas those with a conventional biofilter pretreatment exhibit a cake layer porosity of only 0.36. This is because micro-flocculation occurs in the effluents of BC-biofilter. The flocs generated through flocculation deposit on membrane surfaces to create highly porous cake layer. Moreover, catalytic reduction can increase the zeta potentials of the biofilter effluents. This makes the deposition of colloidal particles and flocs on membrane surfaces difficult under electrostatic repulsion. Simultaneously, micro-flocculation after BC-biofilter pretreatment can remove colloidal particles with particle sizes of 200–350 nm in water. This can effectively prevent the blockage of ultrafiltration membrane pores. Furthermore, compared to conventional biofilter, BC-biofilter pretreatment can more effectively reduce the number of colloidal particles and the van der Waals forces of ultrafiltration membranes. They can also change the action directions of electric double layers and thereby mitigate ultrafiltration membrane fouling.