Comparison of biofouling mechanisms between cellulose triacetate (CTA) and thin-film composite (TFC) polyamide forward osmosis membranes in osmotic membrane bioreactors

There are two types of popular forward osmosis (FO) membrane materials applied for researches on FO process, cellulose triacetate (CTA) and thin film composite (TFC) polyamide. However, performance and fouling mechanisms of commercial TFC FO membrane in osmotic membrane bioreactors (OMBRs) are still unknown. In current study, its biofouling behaviors in OMBRs were investigated and further compared to the CTA FO membrane. The results indicated that β-d-glucopyranose polysaccharides and microorganisms accounted for approximately 77% of total biovolume on the CTA FO membrane while β-d-glucopyranose polysaccharides (biovolume ratio of 81.1%) were the only dominant biofoulants on the TFC FO membrane. The analyses on the biofouling structure implied that a tighter biofouling layer with a larger biovolume was formed on the CTA FO membrane. The differences in biofouling behaviors including biofoulants composition and biofouling structure between CTA and TFC FO membranes were attributed to different membrane surface properties.