Development of a new method for measuring the abrasive potential of water: risk of membrane failure in water treatment plants.

The objectives of this study were to develop an analytical method to distinguish feed water used to produce drinking water, with varying concentrations of suspended solids, in terms of abrasiveness and to define an index that can assess the abrasive potential of the feed water coming in contact with a polymeric membrane. For such process configurations, membrane abrasion has been identified as one of the most recurring and major concerns in operation because the polymeric materials used in treatment plants are relatively sensitive to abrasion. Five different types of apparatus were benchmarked and were evaluated on their ability to be adapted to particles commonly found in most drinking water treatment plants at low concentrations.

Evaluating membrane performance in recycled water treatment plants for assets replacement strategy.

Membranes are an important barrier used in recycled water treatment plants for pathogen removal. Understanding performance over operational life is important to inform membrane replacement. In this study, full scale virus challenge testing was conducted on newly commissioned membranes to validate virus log removal values for accreditation.