Water demands on the Trinity River Authority (TRA) Huntsville Regional Water Supply System(HRWSS) have necessitated an impending plant expansion from 8 to 16 MGD. Membranetechnology was evaluated as an alternative to conventional filtration. An on-site pilot wasconducted to establish whether membrane filtration is appropriate for treatment of HRWSSsettled water and to determine design criteria.Four different membrane systems were piloted at the TRA HRWSS water treatment plant(WTP), including Zenon Zeeweed 1000, Leopold Hydranautics Hydracap, U.S. Filter CMF-SMemcor and Pall Microza. The pilot units successfully managed two plant upsets and over 90days of pilot operation. While several power outages and numerous breakdowns of pilot unitcomponents slowed progress at the onset of the project, the four different types of membraneswere found to be compatible with the clarified water quality at the TRA HRWSS WTP.Average permeate turbidities for all four membrane pilot systems were less than 0.04 NTU.Standard cleaning practices were effective in controlling membrane fouling and maintaining thetransmembrane pressure within acceptable ranges.Low-pressure membrane filtration offers several advantages over conventional filtration for theTRA HRWSS WTP. Advantages include but are not limited to:membrane effluent turbidities are consistently less than 0.1 NTU;total organic carbon (TOC) removal is typically improved; and,membranes provide a multiple barrier to pathogens in conjunction with disinfection.This paper addresses the membrane pilot study results as well as the economics and otherissues surrounding membrane filtration. Includes tables, figures.
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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 03/05/2003 Number of Pages: 20File Size: 1 file , 1.3 MB