Ultrafiltration pretreatment enhances membrane distillation flux, resilience and permeate quality during water recovery from concentrated blackwater (urine/faeces).

ABSTRACT: In this study, the pretreatment of concentrated blackwater using ultrafiltration (UF) was shown to improve the permeability, selectivity and robustness of membrane distillation (MD) for application to wastewater treatment. Concentrated blackwater comprises urine and faeces, with minimal flushwater added. The faecal contribution increased the soluble organic fraction and introduced coarse and colloidal particles into the urine, which increased resistance to filtration during dead-end UF. Ultrafiltration removed the particulate and colloidal fractions (MW > 500 kDa) from the blackwater, which permitted similar permeability and robustness for MD to that observed with urine (29.9 vs 25.9 kg m^-2 h^-1), which comprises a lower colloidal organic concentration. Without UF pret

SUBMITTER: Kamranvand F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7511602 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature