One of the greatest problems associated with membrane processes is the loss of productivity due to biofouling.
Currently, biofouling is detected by monitoring progressive flux losses, which is an after-the-fact practice with
respect to this phenomenon. One of the greatest challenges for water treatment membrane operations is the
development of non-invasive methods that allow for early biofilm detection prior to irreversible macroscale flux
losses, which could extend membrane life and may help reduce operation and maintenance costs. This paper presents a
novel, non-invasive technique using ultrasonic frequency-domain reflectometry (UFDR), to detect biofilms on
polyamide membrane coupons and polycarbonate slides. This is a variation of a technique previously reported to
detect mineral scaling on RO membranes, which holds promise for real-time biofilm detection in full-scale
membranes. Includes 10 references, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 330 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 7 |
| Published : | 06/15/2003 |
