Biofouling is a major impediment for the application of reverse osmosis filtration and nanofiltration in water and wastewater treatment as well as seawater desalination. In this study, a novel biofouling control strategy of using D-amino acids to interfere with biofilm formation was evaluated. Impact of D-amino acids on the surface attachment and biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa was investigated in batch and continuous flow filtration systems. All 19 D-amino acids demonstrated inhibitive effects on P. aeruginosa biofilm formation. In particular, D-tyrosine was found to strongly inhibit P. aeruginosa attachment and biofilm formation on an NF membrane. When continuously supplemented to the membrane feed water in a bench scale nanofiltration system, it prohibited irreversible biofouling of the NF membrane at concentrations as low as 3 μM. The effectiveness of biofilm control by these D-amino acids seems to strongly depend on the ratio of D-amino acid concentration to bacterial cell number.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:RICE/oai:scholarship.rice.edu:1911/70509 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Contributors | Li, Qilin |
| Source Sets | Rice University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Text |
| Format | 84 p., application/pdf |
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