New Insights into the Fouling of a Membrane during the Ultrafiltration of Complex Organic-Inorganic Feed Water.

This paper presents an analysis of the fouling of a ceramic membrane by a mixture containing high concentrations of humic acid and colloidal silica during cross-flow ultrafiltration under various operating conditions. Two types of feed water were tested: feed water containing humic acid and feed water containing a mixture of humic acid and colloidal silica. The colloidal silica exacerbated the fouling, yielding lower fluxes (109-394 L m h) compared to the humic acid feed water (205-850 L m h), while the retentions were higher except for the highest cross-flow rate.