Investigating the efficiency of thermosonication for controlling biofouling in batch membrane systems

The potency of thermosonication as a pre-treatment technique to deactivate microorganisms was investigated in this work in order to reduce the biofouling in Reverse Osmosis (RO) system. E. coli with a concentration of 106 Colony Forming Unit (CFU)/mL was selected as a sample of microorganisms in water. Composite polyamide RO membrane in a stirred cell was used as a model for the membrane system. The efficiency of thermosonication in reducing the formation of biofouling on RO membrane was assessed based on two criteria i) measuring the permeate flux of the stirred cell and ii) analysing the developed biofilm on RO membrane using staining and epiflourescence microscopy techniques. Thermosonication treatment with intensity of 21.5 W/cm2, temperature of 48 °C and treatment time of 4 min eliminated almost 103 CFU/mL of the presented E. coli in the feed solution of RO and injured more than 10% of the surviving population. As a consequence, it was possible to recover the permeate flux of the treated feed by more than 0.1 L/m2.hr during fouling treatment for 60 h. Moreover, the captured microphotographs of the membrane used with untreated and treated feeds revealed that the treated E. coli built sparse biofilm on the membrane, while the developed biofilm by untreated E. coli covered almost all the membrane area.

► Thermosonication was used to reduce the formation of biofouling on RO membrane.
► The deactivation of microorganisms was affected by the suspension components.
► Thermosonication eliminated almost half of E.coli population and injured > 10%.
► Treated suspension flux was recovered by > 0.1 L/m2.hr during fouling test of 60 h.
► Biofilm of treated E.coli was sparse, while biofilm of untreated E.coli was dense.