Date of Award

Spring 2022

Project Type

Thesis

Program or Major

Civil Engineering

Degree Name

Master of Science

First Advisor

James P Malley

Second Advisor

Martin Spruijt

Third Advisor

Joop C Kruithof

Abstract

Ceramic microfiltration (CMF) is a promising alternative to traditional polymeric microfiltration and its chemical resistance makes it particularly attractive for sustainable water reuse applications. This research investigated the ability of ozonation and coagulation as pretreatments to improve the performance of ceramic microfiltration using HHNK’s WWTP in Wervershoof, The Netherlands. With a CMF pilot plant design flow of 200 L/h, critical flux tests were completed using ozonation individually and with coagulation sequentially to evaluate the ceramic membrane filtration performance. Results showed that with an ozone residual before the ceramic membrane, the performance increased significantly compared to no pretreatment and without an ozone residual. 11 target pharmaceuticals were also sampled to monitor the removal using different ozone doses testing the requirements from Dutch Water Authority regulations. One limitation to using ozone is the formation of a suspect human carcinogen, bromate. Using a bench scale ozone testing device, different ratios of hydrogen peroxide to ozone dose were tested to observe the formation of bromate and how hydrogen peroxide mitigates it. Results showed that the ozone residual during the experiments was a helpful indication of the resulting bromate formation. The triple bottom line also needs to be taken into consideration when optimizing the pretreatment processes. Specifically, the financial aspect when applying the pretreatment methods at a full-scale facility with more energy and chemical costs.

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