TY - JOUR
T1 - Biofouling potential indicators to assess pretreatment and mitigate biofouling in SWRO membranes
T2 - A short review
AU - Abushaban, Almotasembellah
AU - Salinas-Rodriguez, Sergio G.
AU - Philibert, Marc
AU - Le Bouille, Léonie
AU - Necibi, Mohamed Chaker
AU - Chehbouni, Abdelghani
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Many desalination plants still struggle to control biological fouling in seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) systems as there are no standard methods to monitor this type of fouling. Strategies to control biofouling in SWRO systems have been proposed such as antifouling coating and lowering biofouling potential in SWRO feedwater through pretreatment processes. Measuring biofouling potential in the pretreatment and SWRO feedwater has gained increased interest due to its direct link to biofouling. Moreover, this approach can be used as an early warning system allowing for taking corrective actions in the pretreatment processes to meet the required SWRO feedwater quality. This article presents the biofouling potential methods/tools developed for seawater, their applications to monitor and assess raw seawater, SWRO pretreatment and SWRO feedwater, and how these methods are employed to control SWRO biofouling membrane systems. The reported removal efficiency of biofouling potential during SWRO pretreatment processes was found to be low to moderate. Threshold values for biofouling limitation were then proposed based on several lab and plant studies. Research on biofouling potential has provided insight into SWRO pretreatment performance optimisation and biofouling control. Future research is anticipated to determine better pretreatment processes and to identify robust threshold values for mitigating biofouling in SWRO membranes.
AB - Many desalination plants still struggle to control biological fouling in seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) systems as there are no standard methods to monitor this type of fouling. Strategies to control biofouling in SWRO systems have been proposed such as antifouling coating and lowering biofouling potential in SWRO feedwater through pretreatment processes. Measuring biofouling potential in the pretreatment and SWRO feedwater has gained increased interest due to its direct link to biofouling. Moreover, this approach can be used as an early warning system allowing for taking corrective actions in the pretreatment processes to meet the required SWRO feedwater quality. This article presents the biofouling potential methods/tools developed for seawater, their applications to monitor and assess raw seawater, SWRO pretreatment and SWRO feedwater, and how these methods are employed to control SWRO biofouling membrane systems. The reported removal efficiency of biofouling potential during SWRO pretreatment processes was found to be low to moderate. Threshold values for biofouling limitation were then proposed based on several lab and plant studies. Research on biofouling potential has provided insight into SWRO pretreatment performance optimisation and biofouling control. Future research is anticipated to determine better pretreatment processes and to identify robust threshold values for mitigating biofouling in SWRO membranes.
KW - Assimilable organic carbon
KW - Bacterial growth potential
KW - Biological fouling
KW - Pretreatment
KW - Reverse osmosis
KW - Seawater desalination
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85123716869&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.desal.2021.115543
DO - 10.1016/j.desal.2021.115543
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85123716869
SN - 0011-9164
VL - 527
JO - Desalination
JF - Desalination
M1 - 115543
ER -