National validation guidelines for water recycling: reverse osmosis membranes
Date
2015
Authors
Pype, M.L.
Alvarez de Eulate, E.
Antony, A.
Arrigan, D.
Busetti, F.
Le Clech, P.
Gernjak, W.
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Validation and monitoring of treatment by high pressure membranes (reverse osmosis - RO, and nanofiltration - NF) is critical to ensure the risk to public health associated with pathogens is adequately managed. To-date, there is no accepted Australian or international validation protocol for this type of membranes despite conventional monitoring techniques, such as electrical conductivity (EC; only for RO), total organic carbon (TOC) or sulfate rejection, having been used for this purpose albeit based on ad-hoc approval by regulators. An agreed validation protocol establishing a correlation between log removal value (LRV) and indirect continuous online monitoring would provide confidence to recycled water treatment plant operators and project developers. In particular the ability to accredit LRV of three and above could reduce the investment costs and simplify treatment process trains by removing unnecessary treatment barriers.The NatVal 2.2 sub-project 2 aimed to create a framework based on literature review, operational experience from stakeholders, experimental results, scientific knowledge and manufacturer software to develop validation and verification monitoring protocols for the rejection of pathogens (in particular viruses) using online monitoring and challenge testing techniques for RO/NF. This document compiles all experimental data produced under the sub-project 2 necessary to develop the validation framework.This report is composed of five main sections and two appendices. After a brief introduction, the first part of the document provides an overview of the three types of removal mechanisms by RO/NF membranes and especially the ones involved in virus removal. This section also introduces the existing monitoring techniques and their correlation with virus surrogate (MS2 phage) from data gathered from the literature.The second part of the report presents the results of the study conducted to understand the impact of the operating conditions on surrogates’ rejection. The third main section identifies spiked salt as a new surrogate. Finally, Sections four and five present the impact of fouling/ageing cycles on the rejection ofMS2 phage and EC. The two appendices are studies conducted in parallel on: (i) the development of anew electrochemical sensor for online measurement of sulfate; and (ii) testing the commercially available sensor S::CAN in full-scale.
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Copyright 2015 Australian Water Recycling Centre of Excellence