Sustainable flux enhancement in non-circular ceramic membranes on wastewater using the Fenton process

The use of the Fenton process to enhance the sustainable flux in non-circular ceramic membranes is considered. The efficiencies of the Fenton process as a microfiltration pre-treatment using varying amounts of Fe2+ and a fixed quantity of H2O2 (Fenton-oxidation coagulation process or FOC) or a constant amount of Fe2+ but varying quantities of H2O2 (Fenton-oxidation oxidation process or FOO) are compared with processes involving only oxidation or only coagulation. The trend in TOC removal is FOC > coagulation > FOO > oxidation. The resultant membrane feed characteristics, i.e. TOC and average particle size, have an important influence on the sustainable flux. Higher sustainable fluxes were found in all pre-treated feeds regardless of the pre-treatment option. The trend in the sustainable fluxes is the same as for TOC with FOC achieving the best flux enhancements of up to 416% while oxidation was least effective (up to 47.7%). The fluxes achieved with FOC are mainly attributed to the effective removal of organics and to a lesser extent an increase in average particle size. This study demonstrates the importance of the effect of the organic colloidal fraction on membrane performance and shows that pre-treatment can be important in reducing and controlling membrane fouling.