Passive Membrane Filtration For Drinking Water Treatment in Remote and Rural Communities

This paper discusses the long-term operation of a UF membrane system for drinking water treatment under ‘passive’ (i.e. without backwash, chemical cleaning and permeate pumping) conditions could be sustained over extended periods. Without any sparging, a steady state permeate flux of approximately 2 Lm-2hr-1 could be maintained. Providing infrequent sparging (5 minutes/day) significantly increased the permeate flux that could be sustained (4 Lm-2hr-1). Interrupting the permeate flux (i.e. relaxation) for one hour prior to sparging further increased the sustainable permeate flux to 6 Lm-2hr-1. Results from the present study are currently being field validated in a prototype system that operates using gravity head for permeation, sparging and purging.