Effect of operation conditions on fouling of immersed ultrafiltration membrane for drinking water treatment of surface water

Effect of operating conditions on the fouling of immersed ultrafiltration(UF) membrane for the Suzhou Internal River was investigated with a pilot scale study. Results show that fouling could be reduced by both the continuous aeration and intermittent aeration, while the aeration intensity should be selected reasonably. Fouling could be reduced by intermittent filtration only due to the decrease of the filtration duration, but the combination of aeration and intermittent filtration could have better control of fouling. The transmembrane pressure (TMP) of UF operation could be significantly reduced by coagulation pretreatment and the combination of coagulation, aeration and backwashing could have better mitigation of membrane fouling in the real application of immersed UF.