Abstract In the forward osmosis (FO) process, biofouling is well pronounced on the active side where wastewater and seawater are used as feed and draw solution, respectively. However, the biofouling tendencies within the support layer are not clear. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the effect of TEP pre-conditioning on hydophobicity and initial bacterial attachment of FO membrane support layer. Two structurally distinct FO membranes from different manufacturers were pre ­ conditioned by soaking in artificial sea water filtrates containing size fractioned TEP. The conditioning solution pre-treated with a 0.4 µm pore size filter, contributed to the highest bacterial adhesion rates during bacterial attachment testing in both steady state and cross-flow mode in a lab-scale FO system for both membrane types. CTA-ES support exhibited higher numbers of adhered bacteria when compared to PA-TFC support in a steady state. Conversely, in cross-flow lab-scale testing, a negative impact of fouling on PA-TFC was more apparent than the CTA-ES membrane. This was attributed to the higher porosity and surface roughness of the PA-TFC membrane. Overall, our findings reinforce the potential impact of hydrodynamics conditions and membrane properties on the fouling behavior of FO membrane support layer.

中文翻译：

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尺寸分级的海藻酸盐基透明外聚体颗粒对正渗透膜支撑层初始细菌粘附的影响

摘要 在正向渗透 (FO) 过程中，在废水和海水分别用作进料和汲取液的活性侧，生物污垢非常明显。然而，支撑层内的生物污染趋势尚不清楚。因此，本研究的目的是研究 TEP 预处理对 FO 膜支撑层的疏水性和初始细菌附着的影响。来自不同制造商的两种结构不同的 FO 膜通过浸泡在含有大小分级 TEP 的人工海水滤液中进行预处理。用 0.4 µm 孔径过滤器预处理的调节溶液在实验室规模的 FO 系统中的稳态和错流模式下的细菌附着测试期间，对于两种膜类型都有助于实现最高的细菌粘附率。与稳定状态下的 PA-TFC 支持相比，CTA-ES 支持表现出更高数量的粘附细菌。相反，在错流实验室规模测试中，结垢对 PA-TFC 的负面影响比 CTA-ES 膜更明显。这归因于 PA-TFC 膜的较高孔隙率和表面粗糙度。总的来说，我们的研究结果加强了流体动力学条件和膜特性对 FO 膜支撑层结垢行为的潜在影响。