Application of ATP and Rejection of Chloramines by Reverse Osmosis Membranes for Detection of Biological Fouling

Biological growth on reverse osmosis membranes can lead to many negative operational changes. Common practice to control biofouling is to maintain a chloramine residual in the feed water, however this can be damaging to the membrane surface overtime, ultimately leading to shortened life of the membranes. This presentation describes the use of short chloramine spikes to mitigate biofouling before any operational changes from biofouling can be seen. Using rejection of chloramine residual and adenosine triphosphate measurements as early detection tools for maintaining effective biofouling control is useful to the industry because this novel approach allows for better biofouling management and potential and potentially lower O&M costs.