Fouling in the membrane distillation treating superficial water with phenolic compounds

The production of drinking water free of micropollutants is a challenge that has currently received a lot of attention. Micropollutants, such as phenolic compounds, are not removed from conventional water treatment systems and may occur in drinking water. The removal of these compounds in the quest to achieve sustainable water management makes advanced technologies, such as membrane distillation, important. However, the long-term use of membrane distillation is restricted by membrane fouling, while how this process behaves towards micropollutant removal has been unanswered. In this regard, this study aims to evaluate the impact of fouling in the direct contact membrane distillation on the rejection of 15 phenolic compounds in surface water. According to the results, the process achieved a recovery rate of 93.26%, without compromising the permeate quality. Fouling was mainly attributed to organic elements from surface water, particularly those with sizes ranging from 1.143 to 1.214 mu m that were comparable to bacteria. The fouling layer formed favored the concentration of the phenolic compound in the feed solution with practically no mass loss in the process. The average removals of phenolic compounds varied from 94.30 +/- 1.93% to 99.24 +/- 0.24%. Thus, although fouling occurred, membrane distillation was robust in phenolic compounds retention and produced high-quality water.

Automated summary

The study evaluated the rejection efficiency of membrane distillation to 15 phenolic compounds, demonstrating that membrane distillation can efficiently remove these compounds while producing high-quality water.