Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control State Key Joint Laboratory, State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Microorganism Application and Risk Control (SMARC), School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China; Beijing Laboratory for Environmental Frontier Technologies, Beijing 100084, PR China.
Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control State Key Joint Laboratory, State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Microorganism Application and Risk Control (SMARC), School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China; Beijing Laboratory for Environmental Frontier Technologies, Beijing 100084, PR China.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Oct 20;844:157079. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157079. Epub 2022 Jun 30.
Membrane fouling is the Achilles' heel of the reverse osmosis (RO) system for high-quality reclaimed water production. Previous studies have found that after the significant selection effect of traditional disinfection, the remaining disinfection-residual bacteria (DRB) may possess more severe biofouling potentials. To provide more constructive advice for the prevention of biofouling, we compared the RO membrane fouling characteristics of DRB after using five commonly used disinfection methods (NaClO, NHCl, ClO, UV, and O) and two novel disinfection methods (KFeO and the flow-through electrode system (FES)). Compared with the control group (undisinfected, 21.1 % flux drop), the UV-DRB biofilm aggravated biofouling of the RO membrane (23.4 % flux drop), while the FES, KFeO, and NHCl treatments showed less severe biofouling, with final flux drops of 6.9 %, 8.1 %, and 8.1 %, respectively. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) was found to be a capable indicator for predicting the biofouling potential of DRB. Systematic analysis showed that the thickness and density of the DRB biofilms were most closely related to the different fouling degree of RO membranes. Moreover, the relative abundance of bacteria with higher extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) secretion levels, such as Pseudomonas and Sphingomonas, was found closely related with the biofouling degree of RO membranes.
膜污染是反渗透（RO）系统生产高质量再生水的阿喀琉斯之踵。先前的研究发现，经过传统消毒的显著选择作用后，剩余的消毒残留细菌（DRB）可能具有更严重的生物污染潜力。为了为生物污染的预防提供更具建设性的建议，我们比较了使用五种常用消毒方法（NaClO、NHCl、ClO、UV 和 O）和两种新型消毒方法（KFeO 和流通电极系统（FES））后 DRB 的 RO 膜污染特性。与对照组（未消毒，通量下降 21.1%）相比，UV-DRB 生物膜加剧了 RO 膜的生物污染（通量下降 23.4%），而 FES、KFeO 和 NHCl 处理的生物污染较轻，最终通量下降分别为 6.9%、8.1%和 8.1%。三磷酸腺苷（ATP）被发现是预测 DRB 生物污染潜力的有效指标。系统分析表明，DRB 生物膜的厚度和密度与 RO 膜不同的污染程度最密切相关。此外，发现具有更高胞外聚合物（EPS）分泌水平的细菌（如假单胞菌和鞘氨醇单胞菌）的相对丰度与 RO 膜的生物污染程度密切相关。
