Coagulation prior to membrane filtration is becoming desirable because it allows poorer
quality source waters to be used and improves membrane permeability. However, relatively
little information is available on the effect of coagulants on the performance of membrane
systems. Thus, the objective of this research was to develop a technique for an automatic
control of coagulation pretreatment to enhance membrane performance in a coagulation-membrane
hybrid system.
The work was done at pilot scale using a 400 m 3/day plant with submerged microfilters
(CMF-S, USFilter, USA) in a water treatment plant. Raw water collected from the Han River was
used as feed water and polyaluminum chloride was used as coagulants. A computer-based
control and data acquisition system was designed, installed and tested on the pilot plant. A
new form of fouling index (KFI), which implies the relative amount of particulate foulant and
specific cake resistance, was suggested and integrated into the automatic control system to
keep the coagulation conditions favorable for membrane filtration.
The results indicated that the fouling potential of coagulated feed water could be described as
two parameters such as turbidity and KFI, which can be estimated using on-line instruments
and sensors. Using turbidity and KFI as control parameters, the conditions for coagulation
pretreatment were automatically determined. A comparison of membrane performances
indicates that the automatic control was more efficient to minimize coagulation dose (30 %
reduction in coagulant use) and fouling (TMP < 50 kPa) compared to manual operation. Includes 12 references, table, figures.