Resumen de Substitution of conventional pre-treatment units by membrane based processes in drinking water treatment
Olga Ferrer Mallén
This thesis focused on the feasibility of substituting, partially or totally, drinking water treatment plant (DWTP) conventional pre-treatment by membrane based units, in particular by ultrafiltration (UF). For such purpose, bench and pilot scale tests with natural water were conducted, first, to address the technical feasibility and, second, to optimize its performance in order to determine whereas the proposed scheme was competitive from hydraulic and quality perspectives with the current conventional pre-treatment. Moreover, tailored microbes based tests were defined to assess its proper functioning and reliability, and additional advantages related to direct UF besides those purely related to the pre-treatment unit were investigated. The case study selected was Sant Joan Despí DWTP (Barcelona, Spain) due to its particularities: it treats Llobregat River water, which is a highly variable water resource in terms of quality and quantity, and it is a complex multistage system. As a result, this study covered a wide range of conditions and the technology under consideration could be pushed to its limits. Results showed that direct UF of raw river water was a competitive alternative to dioxichlorination, coagulation/flocculation, settling and sand filtration. The pilot plant was able to continuously treat raw river water during 2 years, independently of its quality (e.g. turbidity > 1,000 NTU), delivering water of high and stable quality, both physico-chemically and microbiologically. In terms of pre-treated water quality, most of the physico-chemical parameters monitored presented lower values and variability in the direct UF scheme than in the conventional pre-treatment process. From a microbiological perspective, the direct UF scheme tested ensured an average removal of > 5 log10 units of bacteria and viruses greater than 60 nm. The highest water yields achieved ranged between 94.0%-94.7% in optimal conditions, involving 1 or 2 chemically enhanced backwashes (CEBs) per day, transmembrane pressure (TMP) below 1 bar, filtration fluxes of 40¿70 L/(m2¿h) and low reagents consumption. When a micro-coagulation previous to the UF was applied, the increase of the hydraulic resistance during filtration was decreased and stabilized, especially in winter, the hydraulic cleaning efficiency raised and the CEB frequency diminished. Since fouling indicators (SDI15 and MFI0.45) of the direct UF permeate were lower than those associated to the conventional pre-treatment, the subsequent reverse osmosis (RO) unit would require less chemical cleanings and thus, its lifetime would be extended. In addition to this, besides the economic savings associated to the significant reduction of reagents dosed within the direct UF scheme (chemical disinfectants and coagulants mainly), a minimization of risk of RO membrane degradation was demonstrated. Studies concerning the effects on physico-chemical and transport properties of RO membranes exposed to chemicals used within the conventional pre-treatment scheme but avoided in the direct UF treatment were also undertaken. An advanced characterisation of the exposed membranes enabled understanding the RO membranes performance changes with its composition and structure modification. The implementation of direct UF would imply the pre-treatment being a single membrane filtration step. This has advantages in terms of process complexity, space requirements, as well as avoidance of chemical based disinfectants dosage. Nevertheless, the preservation of its separating properties along time is of utmost importance, especially from a microbiological standpoint. Consequently, microbes based tailored tests aiming at assessing membrane integrity were defined and conducted periodically, to determine the removal capacity reliability of the pre-treatment scheme proposed in this thesis. Results showed that membrane integrity had not been compromised despite the challenging conditions that direct UF posed.
