Thesis (master's)--Göteborg University, 1999. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Sept. 18, 2007). "March 1999." Includes bibliographical references.

A comparison of fouling in osmotically driven processes with that in pressure driven processes is the main focus of the thesis. Forward osmosis (FO) and reverse osmosis (RO) have received considerable attention for water treatment and seawater desalination. This research compared the nature of fouling in FO mode with that in RO starting with the same initial flux in connection with cleaning effects and then comparing to those in ultrafiltration membranes. In all cases, with cleaning as an integral part, the extent of fouling reversibility, and the question whether a critical flux could be determined were examined. The work during the first phase (undertaken at Oxford) quantified the removal of reversible fouling through rinsing by cold and hot water for a range of concentrations using the foulants dextran and carboxymethyl cellulose. The flux-TMP relationship was conventionally compared to that of the clean water flux. The later phase (at Singapore) compared the fouling in FO and RO by alginate in terms of multiple parameters using cellulose tri acetate (CTA) and thin film composite (TFC) membranes. Silica and alginate were selected as model foulants. Whilst experimental water flux profiles in the present study did not exhibit significant differences in trend between FO and RO fouling, foulant resistance for FO was found to be increasingly greater than for RO with the progression of the fouling tests. This was further corroborated by membrane autopsies post fouling tests; both foulant mass deposition density and specific foulant resistance for FO were greater than for RO. The analysis clearly revealed that FO is essentially more prone to fouling than RO which was presumably due to less flux decline in FO (or greater average flux) as compared to that in RO in result of ICP-self compensation effect which is opposite to the prevailing claim in the literature. Additionally, the present study did not find evidence that hydraulic pressure in RO has a role in foulant layer compaction. FO membrane fouling by real waters was the focus of the final phase of the research at SMTC. Pilot scale FO experiments were conducted on spiral wound CTA membrane with treated waste water obtained from a NEWater factory (Singapore) as the feed. In the second stage, experiments were repeated at bench scale with membrane coupons taken from the spiral wound membranes used earlier. The key finding was that the mass transfer coefficients in the Spiral-Wound module were around 50% lower than the corresponding values in the flat sheet unit and this severely limited the fluxes. The reason could be attributed to strong internal concentration polarisation in the former, where tightly wound spacers act to increase the structural parameter.

Algal bloom can significantly impact reverse osmosis desalination process and reduce the drinking water production. In 2008, a major bloom event forced several UAE reverse osmosis plants to stop their production, and in this context, a better understanding of UF membrane fouling caused by algal organic matter (AOM) is needed, in order to adjust the filtration conditions during algal bloom events. Polymeric MF/UF membranes are already widely used for RO pretreatment, but ceramic UF membranes can also be an alternative for the filtration of marine algal solutions. The fouling potential of the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, sampled at different seasons, along with four algal monocultures grown in laboratory, and one mesocosm experiment in the Red Sea was investigated. Algal solutions induce a stronger and more irreversible fouling than terrestrial humic solution, toward ceramic membrane. During algal bloom events, this fouling is enhanced and becomes even more problematic at the decline phase of the bloom, for a similar initial DOC. Three main mechanisms are involved: the formation of a cake layer at the membrane surface; the penetration of the algal organic matter (AOM) in the pore network of the membrane; the strong adhesion of AOM with the membrane surface. The last mechanism is species-specific and metal-oxide specific. In order to understand the stronger ceramic UF fouling at the decline phase, AOM quality was analyzed every two days. During growth, AOM is getting enriched in High Molecular Weight (HMW) structures (> 200 kDa), which are mainly composed by proteins and polysaccharides, and these compounds seem to be responsible for the stronger fouling at decline phase. In order to prevent the fouling of ceramic membrane, coagulation-flocculation (CF) using ferric chloride was implemented prior to filtration. It permits a high removal of HMW compounds and greatly reduces the fouling potential of the algal solution. During brief algal bloom events, CF should be implemented prior to UF to protect the membranes. A comparison between polymeric and ceramic UF membranes showed that ceramic membrane suffers from a stronger fouling but permits a better removal of DOC and particularly HMW compounds.

Submitted by Diogo Barreiros (diogo.barreiros@ufba.br) on 2017-02-06T16:36:13Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Alexandre_Araripe.pdf: 1792868 bytes, checksum: 1adaa02d41a8ac826a6a455f5299d8ed (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Vanessa Reis (vanessa.jamile@ufba.br) on 2017-02-07T11:00:19Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Alexandre_Araripe.pdf: 1792868 bytes, checksum: 1adaa02d41a8ac826a6a455f5299d8ed (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-07T11:00:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alexandre_Araripe.pdf: 1792868 bytes, checksum: 1adaa02d41a8ac826a6a455f5299d8ed (MD5) / A necessidade de garantir a disponibilidade do fornecimento de energia na malha elétrica no Brasil nos períodos de seca dos reservatórios das hidrelétricas para evitar apagões como o ocorrido em meados de 2001 promoveu a disseminação de formas alternativas de geração de energia, entre elas as unidades termelétricas, com a implantação de vários parques geradores no território nacional. Devido à crescente disponibilidade de gás natural no país houve uma maior tendência a instalação de usinas termelétricas que utiliza turbinas movidas a gás natural. Durante o ciclo de operação da turbina a gás, partículas de fumaça, sal, poeira e óleo aderem à superfície dos aerofólios do compressor alterando a rugosidade e forma dos mesmos. Esse processo é chamado de fouling (incrustantes) e produz uma queda de desempenho total da turbina ao longo to tempo. O desempenho inicíal de geração é restaurado pela lavagem periódica do compressor da turbina a gás. A interrupção da operação da turbina para a lavagem implica em interrupção da produção e é realizada periodicamente. Entretanto, as condições ambientais podem ifluir na formação do fouling resultando em uma equação de degradação que varia no tempo. Este trabalho visou obter equações que representem a degradação da eficiência energética da turbina devido ao fouling de forma a prever o melhor momento para parada e lavagem do compressor. A análise de algumas variáveis operacionais que relacionam potência energética produzida versus vazão de gás natural na turbina termelétrica sugerem uma tendência linear decrescente o que foi verificado experimentalmente utilizando-se séries temporais obtidas na operação das turbinas termelétricas escolhidas como campo de pesquisa. Também foi observada uma forte correlação entre a potência energética produzida e a temperatura do ar atmosférico. As séries de dados foram condicionadas quanto à outliers, lacunas e ruídos de alta frequência e corrigidas dos efeitos sazonais da temperaura ambiente. Valores de previsão para períodos de operação foram então calculados para as turbinas de teste. Os resultados conduzem à conclusão de que as turbinas estudadas poderiam ter seus ciclos de operação estendidos, o que resultaria em maior produção de energia e menor custo com lavagens. Além disso, conclui-se que as turbinas possuem eficiências diferentes conduzindo a ciclos de operações diferentes. Finalmente, foi calculada a energia total gerada considerando os novos ciclos previstos, obtendo-se ganhos de até 5% no ano.

This study examined the Lake of Egypt Power Plant operated by Southern Illinois Power Cooperative located on the Lake of Egypt south of Marion, IL. The facility has a 173 MW rated turbine operating on a pulverized coal cyclone boiler and three 33 MW rated turbines operating on an oversized circulating fluidized bed boiler with 120 MW capacity. The first area examined was reduction of auxiliary power consumption possible with the addition of variable frequency drives to the forced draft fan and booster fan motors. Included in this examination was an analysis of the economic and environmental impact of such a reduction. From the analysis an annual savings of 24.4 GWh of electricity is possible. The second area examined was the generation capacity lost due to condenser fouling and the possible reduction in facility emissions with altered condenser treatment. From the analysis an additional 3.0 MW of capacity facility wide is possible or a reduction steam production of 1.5% for each boiler.

The performance of a submerged membrane bioreactor for the duty of gas field produced water treatment was appraised. The system was operated under steady state conditions at a range of mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) concentrations and treatment and membrane performance examined. Organics removal (COD and TOC) display removal rates between 90 and 97%. Removal of specific target compounds Benzene, Toulene, Ethylbenzene and Xylene were removed to above 99% in liquid phase with loss to atmosphere between 0.3 and 1%. Comparison of fouling rates at a number of imposed fluxes has been made between long term filtration trials and short term tests using the flux step method. Produced water fed biomass displays a greater fouling propensity than municipal wastewater fed biomass from previous studies. Results indicate an exponential relationship between fouling rate and flux for both long and short term trials, although the value was an order of magnitude lower during long term tests. Moreover, operation during long term trials is characterised by a period of pseudo stable operation followed by a catastrophic rise in TMP at a given critical filtration time (tfi, ) during trials at 6 g. L"1. This time of stable operation, tfit, is characterised by a linear relationship between fouling rate and flux. Results have been compared with the literature. Data for membrane fouling prior to the end of t fit yielded a poor fit with a recently proposed model. Trends recorded at t> trlt revealed the fouling rate to follow no definable trend with flux. The system showed resilience to free oil shocking up to an oil concentration of 200ppmv. Following an increase in oil concentration to 500 ppmv, rapid and exponential fouling ensued.

abstract: With the application of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes in the wastewater treatment and seawater desalination, the limitation of flux and fouling problems of RO have gained more attention from researchers. Because of the tunable structure and physicochemical properties of nanomaterials, it is a suitable material that can be used to incorporate with RO to change the membrane performances. Silver is biocidal, which has been used in a variety of consumer products. Recent studies showed that fabricating silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on membrane surfaces can mitigate the biofouling problem on the membrane. Studies have shown that Ag released from the membrane in the form of either Ag ions or AgNP will accelerate the antimicrobial activity of the membrane. However, the silver release from the membrane will lower the silver loading on the membrane, which will eventually shorten the antimicrobial activity lifetime of the membrane. Therefore, the silver leaching amount is a crucial parameter that needs to be determined for every type of Ag composite membrane. This study is attempting to compare four different silver leaching test methods, to study the silver leaching potential of the silver impregnated membranes, conducting the advantages and disadvantages of the leaching methods. An In-situ reduction Ag loaded RO membrane was examined in this study. A custom waterjet test was established to create a high-velocity water flow to test the silver leaching from the nanocomposite membrane in a relative extreme environment. The batch leaching test was examined as the most common leaching test method for the silver composite membrane. The cross-flow filtration and dead-end test were also examined to compare the silver leaching amounts. The silver coated membrane used in this experiment has an initial silver loading of 2.0± 0.51 ug/cm2. The mass balance was conducted for all of the leaching tests. For the batch test, water jet test, and dead-end filtration, the mass balances are all within 100±25%, which is acceptable in this experiment because of the variance of the initial silver loading on the membranes. A bad silver mass balance was observed at cross-flow filtration. Both of AgNP and Ag ions leached in the solution was examined in this experiment. The concentration of total silver leaching into solutions from the four leaching tests are all below the Secondary Drinking Water Standard for silver which is 100 ppb. The cross-flow test is the most aggressive leaching method, which has more than 80% of silver leached from the membrane after 50 hours of the test. The water jet (54 ± 6.9% of silver remaining) can cause higher silver leaching than batch test (85 ± 1.2% of silver remaining) in one-hour, and it can also cause both AgNP and Ag ions leaching from the membrane, which is closer to the leaching condition in the cross-flow test. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering 2017

L'encrassement est défini comme la formation d'un dépôt sur les surfaces d'échange des échangeurs thermiques, créant une résistance supplémentaire aux transferts de chaleur dans ces dispositifs. Ces phénomènes, rencontrés dans de nombreux procédés industriels, nuisent aux récupérations d'énergie. Cette étude porte sur l'amélioration de l'efficacité énergétique des raffineries de pétrole par réduction de l'encrassement dans les échangeurs thermiques de train de préchauffe. Deux voies sont étudiées dans ces travaux: l'identification de paramètres opératoires optimums permettant de limiter la formation d'un dépôt encrassant dans les échangeurs actuellement en place en raffinerie et la recherche de technologies d'échangeurs retardant l'encrassement. Une boucle d'essais innovante, permettant de reproduire les niveaux de température, de pression et de débits rencontrés en fin de train de préchauffe, a été construite. Les fluides, i.e. du pétrole brut et du résidu atmosphérique, coupe lourde du pétrole, sont conservés. Deux technologies d'échangeurs sont étudiées au cours de cette thèse: un échangeur tubes et calandre, actuellement la plus rencontrée en raffinerie, et un échangeur à plaques soudées. La première section d'essais, dimensionnée de manière à reproduire les niveaux d'échanges thermiques et les écoulements des échangeurs industriels, joue un rôle de référence et permet une étude paramétrique de l'encrassement. L'efficacité des échangeurs Compabloc sur la réduction de l'encrassement est étudiée via la seconde section d'essais. Enfin, un travail sur l'optimisation des paramètres de modèles d'encrassement existants a été réalisé en vue d'améliorer la précision de leurs prédictions. / Fouling is considered as one of the major unsolved problem in heat exchangers. It generates additional resistances to heat transfer, a decrease of the thermal effectiveness and an increase of pressure drop in industrial units. Those phenomenon, meet on several industrial process, increase the energy consumption with detrimental environmental and economical consequences. Because of complex chemical composition, crude oil fouling mechanisms are not well understood. Also, poor plant data makes analyses of performance of different exchangers in fouling condition limited. An innovative test loop was designed to study hydrocarbon fouling in industrial operating conditions. Test sections were constructed to be representative of industrial heat exchanger technologies. The first technology tested was a shell and tubes heat exchanger, the most common heat exchanger technology in refinery pre-heat train. Experimental results and process data from test bench showed that the test section fouling behavior is similar to an industrial heat exchanger. The fouling test loop was validated by measuring fouling rates close to both literature and industrial values. After this first step of validation, the efficiency of a cross flow plate heat exchanger on reducing fouling in refinery preheat train was tested. In order to improve heat exchanger sizing, fouling models parameters were optimised.

Thesis (MTech (Engineering))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2007 / The removal of the colour-eausing natural organic matter (NOM) from natural brown water (NSW) to be used for drinking purposes is of paramount importance. One of the methods available to remove NOM from NSW is the use of pressure-driven membrane separation systems. One of the limitations in efficiently applying membrane filtration in the treatment of NOM-eontaining water is membrane fouling that is caused by foulants, such as NOM, that accumulate on the membrane surface and in the membrane pores. Microfiltration (MF), as a membrane separation system, is susceptible to severe membrane fouling during membrane filtration of NSW. Fouling is characterized by a rapid decline in permeate flux and loss of productivity. Progress in developing more effective control and prevention of fouling is impeded by the absence of suitable fouling measurement and characterization techniques. An in situ method for measuring membrane fouling is necessary for detection of membrane fouling during MF of NSW at the eartiest stages so that the corrective actions can be taken before fouling is permanently adsorbed onto the membrane surface. In this study, an ultrasonic-based method was effectively used to detect and measure the growth of membrane fouling dUring MF of NSW, in situ. Fouling exp~riments results showed the formation of a new peak on the ultrasonic response echo signal due to the presence of a fouling layer on the surface of the membrane. The ultrasonic signals acquired during the in-situ detection of membrane fouling were analysed using wavelet transforms (WTs). Wavelet analysis was applied to differential signals to obtain additional information about fouling. Differential signals were calculated by subtracting the baseline measurement signals from the test signals. The presence of the fouling layer on membranes was verified by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses of the fouled membranes.

O mexilhão dourado Limnoperna fortunei é uma espécie exótica que tem causado diversos problemas no ambiente aquático em razão da sua habilidade de formar colônias em estruturas. A espécie adere nas superfícies por filamentos proteicos, causando sérios danos ambientais, sociais e econômicos. A investigação de materiais anti-incrustantes parece ser a alternativa ecológica mais adequada para controle desse molusco. Nesse trabalho foram estudadas as propriedades físico-químicas e a preparação de materiais poliméricos para testes de adesão em campo para cotejar a densidade de incrustação do mexilhão. Foram executados testes de caracterização dos materiais com a finalidade de quantificar parâmetros associados a adesão e a aplicabilidade do material em condições submersas. Foram utilizadas cinco diferentes amostras de poliuretano, desenvolvidos pelo Grupo de Química Analítica e Tecnologia de Polímeros /IQSC-USP, e outros três materiais, aço inoxidável, alumínio e PVC, e então determinados os parâmetros de molhabilidade das proteínas adesivas e as propriedades da superfície. A relação entre a molhabilidade da proteína e os parâmetros químicos de superfície (energia livre de superfície, e seus componentes de dispersão e polaridade) foram examinados com base na tensão superficial crítica, no trabalho de adsorção e no trabalho da adesão. Os resultados sugerem que os materiais que possuem baixa energia livre de superfície têm baixa molhabilidade da proteína. Foi verificado uma relação entre o aumento do componente polar dos materiais quando o trabalho de adsorção diminui para as proteínas, o que significa, que a adsorção das moléculas de proteínas em uma superfície não polar é predominante em relação àquela de uma superfície polar, em solução aquosa. A densidade de mexilhões aderidos nas placas testes, em campo, não mostrou associação com os valores medidos da energia livre de superfície e do componente de dispersão. Contudo, foi observado que as resinas de poliuretano com polaridade na faixa de 1,03-1,14 mJm-2 mostraram-se altamente eficientes, incrustação < 0,5%, como revestimento anti-incrustante. / The gold mussel Limnoperna fortunei is an exotic specie that has been causing many problems in aquatic environment due its aggregation on structures of non polar materials. The specie attaches on surfaces by means of protein filaments causing serious social, economic and environmental damages. The investigation of antifouling materials seems to be a good ecological alternative to control this mussel aggregation. This work has studied the preparation and the physical chemical properties of polymeric materials to be employed in field experiment adhesion tests to quantify the mussel fouling density. Studies were performed for materials characterization in order to quantify parameters associated with adhesion and other materials suitabilities in submerged conditions. Five different polyurethane samples, developed by the Group of Analytic Chemistry and Technology of Polymers /IQSC-USP, and three well-known commercial materials, stainless steel, aluminum and PVC, were used. The proteins wettability and surface properties were evaluated for the aforementioned materials. The relationship between the protein wettability and the surface chemical parameters such as surface free energy, dispersion and polar components were examined based on critical surface tension, work of the adsorption and work of the adhesion. The results suggest that materials with low surface free energy have low protein wettability, i.e., the polar component of materials increases when the work of adsorption decreases for both proteins, which means, the adsorption of native and synthetic protein molecules on a non polar surface is predominant compared to a polar surface, in aqueous solution. The mussel\'s density attachment on test coupons, in field experiment, did not show any correlation with surface free energy and dispersion components values. However, it was observed that polyurethane resins with polarity in the range of 1.03-1.14 mJm-2 showed a good performance, attachment < 0.5%, as anti-fouling coating.