Experimental evaluations of water treatment systems using a pilot-scale plant for adaptations to a sharp increase in raw-water turbidity caused by climate change

One effect of climate change on the water supply systems in Japan may be a sharp increase in the raw-water turbidity following heavy rain. The objective of this study was to evaluate water treatment performance with a sharp increase in raw-water turbidity. This evaluation was carried out from the perspective of turbidity response by a pilot-scale plant using sand filtration and membrane filtration with coagulation–sedimentation pretreatment. Two coagulants were used; namely, polyaluminum chloride with a basicity of either 72% (PACl-72%) or 51% (PACl-51%). Raw-water turbidity was increased from 5 to 300 TU by adding kaolin suspension. In the case of sand filtration, the filtered-water turbidity increased during the filter stabilization period. An increase in the coagulant dosage produced a more rapid decrease in the filtered-water turbidity and shortened the filter stabilizing period. Filtered-water turbidity decreased more rapidly for PACl-72% than for PACl-51%. In the case of membrane filtration, an increase in raw-water turbidity caused no significant increase in filtered-water turbidity or transmembrane pressure. These results demonstrated that, although neither filtration technique completely failed, membrane filtration was more robust than sand filtration against a sharp increase in raw-water turbidity.