Treating high-turbidity storm water by coagulation-membrane process

The common strategy of drinking waterworks to deal with high-turbidity storm waters is to shut down all operations. Membrane is not regarded feasible to treat high-turbidity raw water for apparently easy fouling accompanied with drinking water production. This study for the first time tested the feasibility of utilizing pre-coagulation–sedimentation and one of three nanofiltration membranes (DK, DL from GE/Osmonics and NF270 from Dow Chemicals) and one reverse osmosis membrane (SG from GE/Osmonics) under crossflow. The tested combined process can produce drinking water at acceptance rates from Morakot storm water at original turbidity of 14120 NTU.