(410d) Investigation of the Effects of Antimicrobial Copper-Charged Feedspacers On Biofouling Kinects

The productivity of membrane filtration is severely lowered by fouling, which is the accumulation of foreign substances on the surface and/or within pores of membranes. Microbial fouling, or biofouling, is the attachment and growth of microorganisms on the membrane surface and on the feedspacer as present between the envelopes. The fouling of membranes has demanded and continues to demand considerable attention from industry and research communities. Our studied have shown that the use of antimicrobial copper (Cu)-charged polypropylene (PP) feedspacers resulted in less biofouling during cross flow filtration experiments, which led to drastically lower rates of flux decline. This decreased rate of flux decline was contended to be due to less extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) present on the membrane surface. To investigate the effect of the Cu-charged spacer on the mechanism of biofouling further, studies on the kinetics of cell growth and attachment to the membrane during cross flow filtration, using both virgin and Cu-charged feed spacers, were investigated. Membranes, using both virgin and Cu-charged feed spacers, were used to filter high biofouling feed waters for different periods of time. During filtration, which was conducted in full recycle mode, the number of cells, and their viability, in the feed reservior was monitored, as well as Cu concentration. After the alloted filtration time, the number of cells, and their viability, attached to the membrane was quantified. Furthermore, the fouled membranes were autopsied using several spectroscopy and imaging techniques.