Increasing public interests in safer and cleaner drinking water, and the supply of high quality drinking water, have become high priorities for the Seoul metropolitan government. The microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF) membrane
processes for the removal of particulate matter (i.e., turbidity and microorganisms) may be used to achieve the
required level of high water quality. To study the feasibility of introducing middle/large scale membrane filtration
plants in Seoul, a field scale pilot test (2,500m3/day) was carried out by the Waterworks Research Institute of Seoul
Metropolitan Government in the G Water Treatment Plant. Five different types of membrane systems (three pressure
driven membrane systems and two vacuum driven ones) were installed in the pilot plant. Each plant had been
optimized with pre/post treatment processes separately through the test.
The finished water quality is stable even with high turbidity, algal blooms and low water temperature. Although the
quality of effluent was stable, the trans-membrane pressure(TMP) increased continuously by turbidity and algal
bloom. The authors concluded that optimized pretreatment (i.e., coagulation and/or sedimentation) processes must
have been considered to reduce the increasing rate of TMP.
The overall energy consumption of each system was different according to its pre- and post-treatment processes.
The energy used only for the membrane process was within the range of 0.118-0.268 kWh/m<sup>3</sup>. The authors
concluded that optimization of the pretreatment process is one of the most effective approaches to reduce the overall cost of
operation of a membrane system. Includes 7 references, tables, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| Number of Pages : | 55 |
| Published : | 06/01/2007 |
