Bacterial adhesion onto nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes: Effect of permeate flux

TY - JOUR

T1 - Bacterial adhesion onto nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes

T2 - Effect of permeate flux

AU - Semião, Andrea J.C.

AU - Habimana, Olivier

AU - Casey, Eoin

N1 - Funding Information: This research was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) , grant number 278530 , funded under the EU Framework Programme 7. The authors would like to thank Mr. Pat O'Halloran for his invaluable technical assistance, and Mr. Liam Morris for the construction of the MFS devices. The authors especially thank Dr. Ellen L. Lagendijk from the Institute of Biology Leiden, Netherlands for the gift of the Pseudomonas fluorescens WCS365, PCL1701 and Pseudomonas putida PCL 1445, PCL 1480 strains. The authors would final like to thank Hydranautics for kindly providing samples of the ESNA1-LF and ESNA1-LF2 membranes.

PY - 2014/10/15

Y1 - 2014/10/15

N2 - The influence of permeate flux on bacterial adhesion to NF and RO membranes was examined using two model Pseudomonas species, namely Pseudomonas fluorescens and Pseudomonas putida. To better understand the initial biofouling profile during NF/RO processes, deposition experiments were conducted in cross flow under permeate flux varying from 0.5 up to 120L/(hm2), using six NF and RO membranes each having different surface properties. All experiments were performed at a Reynolds number of 579. Complementary adhesion experiments were performed using Pseudomonas cells grown to early-, mid- and late-exponential growth phases to evaluate the effect of bacterial cell surface properties during cell adhesion under permeate flux conditions. Results from this study show that initial bacterial adhesion is strongly dependent on the permeate flux conditions, where increased adhesion was obtained with increased permeate flux, until a maximum of 40% coverage was reached. Membrane surface properties or bacterial growth stages was further found to have little impact on bacterial adhesion to NF and RO membrane surfaces under the conditions tested. These results emphasise the importance of conducting adhesion and biofouling experiments under realistic permeate flux conditions, and raises questions about the efficacy of the methods for the evaluation of antifouling membranes in which bacterial adhesion is commonly assessed under zero-flux or low flux conditions, unrepresentative of full-scale NF/RO processes.

AB - The influence of permeate flux on bacterial adhesion to NF and RO membranes was examined using two model Pseudomonas species, namely Pseudomonas fluorescens and Pseudomonas putida. To better understand the initial biofouling profile during NF/RO processes, deposition experiments were conducted in cross flow under permeate flux varying from 0.5 up to 120L/(hm2), using six NF and RO membranes each having different surface properties. All experiments were performed at a Reynolds number of 579. Complementary adhesion experiments were performed using Pseudomonas cells grown to early-, mid- and late-exponential growth phases to evaluate the effect of bacterial cell surface properties during cell adhesion under permeate flux conditions. Results from this study show that initial bacterial adhesion is strongly dependent on the permeate flux conditions, where increased adhesion was obtained with increased permeate flux, until a maximum of 40% coverage was reached. Membrane surface properties or bacterial growth stages was further found to have little impact on bacterial adhesion to NF and RO membrane surfaces under the conditions tested. These results emphasise the importance of conducting adhesion and biofouling experiments under realistic permeate flux conditions, and raises questions about the efficacy of the methods for the evaluation of antifouling membranes in which bacterial adhesion is commonly assessed under zero-flux or low flux conditions, unrepresentative of full-scale NF/RO processes.

KW - Bacterial adhesion

KW - Biofouling

KW - Nanofiltration

KW - Permeate flux

KW - Reverse osmosis

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84904250677&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.watres.2014.06.031

DO - 10.1016/j.watres.2014.06.031

M3 - 文章

C2 - 25016321

AN - SCOPUS:84904250677

SN - 0043-1354

VL - 63

SP - 296

EP - 305

JO - Water Research

JF - Water Research

ER -