Combining PAC, Haops and Microgranular Adsorptive Filtration to Enhance Membrane Performance

This paper presents and investigation into two pretreatment processes for Natural organic matter (NOM) removal and fouling control of a low-pressure membrane.. Heated aluminum oxide particles (HAOPs) and powdered activated carbon (PAC), either alone or mixed, were used as adsorbents. The mixed adsorbents enhanced NOM removal compared to an equal total mass of either adsorbent alone. In conventional treatment, increasing the portion of the PAC in the adsorbent mixture improved the performance of the downstream membrane unit, while in the ÊGAF process, performance of the downstream membrane unit was improved by increasing the portion of the HAOPs in the adsorbent mixture