Comparative study on relationship between pore size and membrane fouling

Membrane bioreactor(MBR) is widely used in removing micro-pollutants from source water,but membrane fouling is one of the main factors that constrain the application of membrane bioreactor technology.In order to find out the relationship between membrane pore size and membrane fouling,series circulation membrane pores blockage test was carried out to membranes with different pore size based on Darcy Law.Each membrane was operated by 12 cycles;the inherent resistance and total resistance of membrane in each cycle were obtained by alternative filtration of fresh water and active sludge.Results showed that after 12 cycles runs,the membrane pores blockage resistance were 4.140×1011,8.591×1011 and 2.593×1012 m-1 respectively for membrane with pore size of 0.10,0.22 and 0.80 μm,that is to say,the greater the pore size,the larger proportion of the pore blockage resistance.The results showed that membrane with small pore size could be more resistant to fouling than the large ones.