Abstract The removal of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) by fouled nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes has been extensively studied. Investigations on the effects of PhACs on organic fouling or biofouling in the NF/RO membrane application are still lacking. In this study, NF/RO membranes were fed with both synthetic (SRNOM solution and synthetic wastewater containing pure culture inoculum) and real (secondary effluent) water matrices spiked with three PhACs to elucidate the impact of PhACs on membrane fouling in comparison with control experiments in the absence of PhACs. Results showed that the PhACs mitigated flux decline during NF/RO filtration of SRNOM solution. The total organic foulants on both membrane surfaces decreased in the presence of PhACs due to the increased negative charges of the membranes and the enhanced size and charge effects of PhAC–macromolecule complexes in SRNOM solution. PhACs appeared to inhibit cell growth in the early stages of biofouling, causing a decline in total biomass, and then induced cell lysis, releasing EPS to protect from chemical stress in the later stages of biofouling, especially protein-like materials, causing more severe biofouling. The alleviation of declines in flux and salt rejection during the filtration of secondary effluent were found in the presence of PhACs. Therefore, we hypothesized that organic fouling or early-stage biofouling occurred during 100 h of filtration of secondary effluent. The decrease in PhAC retention was more obvious due to the higher ionic strength in the secondary effluent. This study may aid understanding of PhAC removal from various matrices and the effects of PhAC mixtures on membrane fouling by in practical NF/RO membranes applications.

中文翻译：

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在各种基质的 NF/RO 膜过滤中去除 PhAC 及其对膜污染的影响

摘要 通过污染纳滤 (NF) 和反渗透 (RO) 膜去除药物活性化合物 (PhAC) 已得到广泛研究。关于PhACs对NF/RO膜应用中有机污染或生物污染的影响的研究仍然缺乏。在本研究中，NF/RO 膜加入了合成（SRNOM 溶液和含有纯培养接种物的合成废水）和真实（二次流出）水基质，并添加了三种 PhAC，以阐明 PhAC 对膜污染的影响与对照实验相比在没有 PhAC 的情况下。结果表明，PhACs 减轻了 SRNOM 溶液在 NF/RO 过滤过程中的通量下降。由于膜的负电荷增加以及 SRNOM 溶液中 PhAC-大分子复合物的尺寸和电荷效应增强，在 PhAC 存在下，两个膜表面上的总有机污染物减少。PhACs 似乎在生物污垢的早期阶段抑制细胞生长，导致总生物量下降，然后诱导细胞裂解，释放 EPS 以防止生物污垢后期的化学应激，尤其是类蛋白质材料，导致更严重的生物污垢. 在 PhAC 的存在下，发现二级流出物过滤过程中通量和脱盐率的下降有所缓解。因此，我们假设在二次出水过滤 100 小时期间发生有机污垢或早期生物污垢。由于二次流出物中的离子强度较高，PhAC 保留率的降低更为明显。这项研究可能有助于了解从各种基质中去除 PhAC 以及 PhAC 混合物在实际 NF/RO 膜应用中对膜污染的影响。