Microfiltration-adsorption hybrid system in organics removal from water

A series of experiments was conducted with a Millipore flat plate microfiltration module modified to incorporate in-line powdered activated carbon (PAC) addition. In-line PAC was mixed continuously through a spiral mixing device for a predetermined time prior entering a membrane unit. The results showed that this system is excellent in removing fulvic acid (FA). This system provides to sufficient contact time for PAC to adsorb organics compared to the system with in-line adsorbent addition. More than 85% of FA was removed from water containing 8 mg/l of FA. To achieve this following conditions were used:.(i) a velocity gradient G (mixing intensity) of 160.4 s^–1; (ii) a hydraulic residence time (mixing time) of 4 minutes; (iii) a PAC dose of 260 mg/l; and (iv) membrane pore size of 0.22 μm. In case of low FA concentration (e.g. 1.2 mg/l) in water, the removal efficiency was almost 100%. The removal efficiency also increased with the increase of mixing intensity and mixing time. The permeate flux slightly improved when a membrane of pore size 0.22 μm was used with shorter hydraulic residence time and lower PAC concentration. This paper presents a mathematical model developed based on surface diffusion. The model successfully predicted the performance of this hybrid system.