Test panels comprised of uncoated, copper coated and silicone coated 7/8'' (22 mm) mesh knitted nylon net were evaluated to compare their properties and the effectiveness to prevent biofouling. This paper describes test procedures that were developed to quantify the performance in terms of antifouling, cleanability, drag and cost. The copper treatment was the most effective at controlling fouli...

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are advanced tools for biological wastewater treatment to obtain high-quality treated water using ultrafiltration or microfiltration membranes for solid–liquid separation2). Despite their advantages over the conventional activated sludge method, a major challenge associated with the use of MBRs is membrane fouling, which involves the clogging of membrane pores due to...

Fouling and slagging are some difficulties for the development of biomass as energy potential and to achieve the targets of renewable energy sources utilization. The proper technique to analyze the influence of fouling in a biomass boiler is to monitorize the evolution of heat absorption in heat transfer equipment. Traditional equation-based monitoring techniques have problems to tackle with th...

Described is a lithographic technique used to realize high resolution tracks of the motor protein kinesin inside flow cells. The process consists of patterns of plasma polymerized PEG-like non-fouling coating on a fouling glass substrate. When in contact with a coated surface, proteins adhere exclusively to the fouling areas, thus forming kinesin tracks suited for microtubule guidance. Parallel...

Perennial macroalgae within the genus Fucus are known to exude metabolites through their outer thallus surface. Some of these metabolites have pro- and/or antifouling properties. Seasonal fluctuations of natural fouling pressure and chemical fouling control strength against micro- and macrofoulers have previously been observed in Fucus, suggesting that control strength varies with threat. To da...

The thermodynamic interactions between membrane and sludge flocs in a submerged membrane bioreactor (MBR) were investigated. It was found that Lewis acid-base (AB) interaction predominated in the total interactions. The interaction energy composition of membrane-sludge flocs combination was quite similar to that of membrane-bovine serum albumin (BSA) combination, indicating the critical role of...

This paper deals with time-optimal operation of batch diafiltration processes in the presence of membrane fouling. Fouling causes a decrease in membrane area and, hence, an increase in processing time. In this work we study a time-optimal operation with several fouling models available in literature. Pontryagin’s minimum principle is applied to characterize the structure of the optimal operatio...

Two parallel anaerobic membrane bioreactors (MBRs), integrated with or without ultrasound equipment for online membrane fouling control (US-AnMBR, or AnMBR) were established to digest waste activated sludge (WAS). The characteristics of bound extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and bacterial communities in the systems were investigated for further understanding of the membrane fouling mech...

Organic matter leads to one of the biggest problems in membranes: fouling. Developing efficient cleaning processes is therefore crucial. This study systematically examines how alginic acid fouling formed under different physical and chemical conditions affect osmotic backwashing cleaning efficiency in forward osmosis (FO). The fouling layer thickness before and after osmotic backwashing was mea...

This study investigated the effects of soluble organic matters on membrane fouling characteristics, using silt density index (SDI) and modified fouling index (MFI) to evaluate the fouling potential. Experimental results demonstrated that humic acid had significant effects on membrane fouling indexes. When its concentration was in the range of 0.01-0.05 mg/L, the SDI(15) and MFI were 2.9-3.9 and...