Pierre Berube

Passive gravity driven membrane filtration (PGDMF) uses a low hydrostatic pressure for filtration and fouling control, without mechanical pumps and chemical systems. In PGDMF, fouling controls are also achieved with hydrostatic pressure, referred to as Passive Fouling Controls. With promising results from laboratory and pilot-scale studies, a full-scale PGDMF drinking water treatment plant including four membrane systems, was implemented for a small First Nation community in British Columbia, Canada. The present study investigated the operational performance of PGDMF systems which could also be operated as GDMF systems (i.e., no passive fouling controls). The performance was assessed based on the permeability and treated water quality. At present, over 2 years of operational data has been collected. The present study focuses on the data of the first 16 months.In Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the performance monitoring, both GDMF and PGDMF operation were considered, respectively. Stage 1 and Stage 2a confirmed the effectiveness of passive fouling controls. Stage 2b considered the impact of variations in feed water characteristics on PGDMF systems. Increases in feed water temperature (i.e., above 16.5 degrees threshold) resulted in a significantly higher rate of decline in permeability. Increases in organic carbon content (i.e., from 1.10±0.12 to 2.20±0.32 mg.L⁻¹) did not impact the permeability. Stage 2b also considered the impact of the operational set-points. Changing one operational set-point (i.e., higher frequency of passive fouling controls, or lower hydrostatic pressure) did not have a significant impact on the permeability. However, changing both operational set-points simultaneously (i.e., higher frequency of passive fouling controls and lower hydrostatic pressure), resulted in a greater rate of decline in permeability. It was hypothesized that microbial communities in the biofilm could not readily adapt to the added stress induced by the simultaneous change in both operational set-points, which requires further research. The results demonstrated the long-term feasibility (beyond 1 year) of PGDMF systems. The treated water quality met all regulatory requirements. Flow throughput declined slowly over 13 months of operation. Positive feedback was also obtained from the operator and the support staff. Moreover, an unexpected 10-day no flow period did not impact the permeability.

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Biological Ion Exchange (BIEX) offers effective removal of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from surface waters without the need for frequent regeneration, making it suitable for small and remote communities. Traditional work hours, night routines, and system maintenances can impose conditions in small and remote communities, where inflow of water to be treated is highly variable, and possibly intermittent. The present study investigated the impact of periods of no inflow on DOC removal by BIEX systems. Various operating conditions were applied to the BIEX systems, to investigate if the extent of the potential impacts of periods of no inflow were influenced by the duration and/or frequencies of these periods. Effluent recirculation within the BIEX systems were also considered as a means to mitigate the extent of the potential impacts of periods of no inflow. The results of the present study indicated that three phases with distinct treatment mechanisms occurred in the BIEX systems: primary IEX, secondary IEX, and stunted secondary IEX (i.e., biodegradation). Considering these three phases of treatment, in general, operation of BIEX systems with periods of no inflow impacted DOC removal. The extent of the potential impacts of no inflow on DOC removal was also affected by the duration and/or frequency of the periods of no inflow. DOC removal in BIEX systems operated with a daily and short (~3h) period of no inflow and a weekly and long (~2d) period of no inflow were similar to continuous operations. However, a daily and long (~8h) period of no inflow resulted in a lower DOC removal than continuous operations. Also, in general, extent of the potential impacts of operation with periods of no inflow on DOC removal could not be mitigated by effluent recirculation within the BIEX systems. Overall, the study offered insight into operation of BIEX systems with periods of no inflow and the impact of the duration and/or frequency of periods of no inflow as well as effluent recirculation on the DOC removal performance. The results of the present study concluded BIEX systems can maintain water quality even under periods of no inflow.

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Passive membrane systems are ideal for use in small and remote communities; they areoperated under a low permeate flux, thereby requiring limited energy, they have few passivefouling control measures, leading to limited mechanical complexity, and are relatively easyto operate. Their operation depends on the formation of a structurally loose and permeablebiofilm on the membrane surface, which helps stabilize the permeate flux and aids theremoval of organic material and other material of concern. However, their application ispotentially hindered by intermittent loading conditions caused by periods of no inflowdemand, a characteristic of small and remote systems. Periods of no inflow could stressbiofilm in passive membrane systems and affect the overall system stability andperformance.The current study investigated the impacts of the periods of no inflow on the throughput andin organic material removal the passive membrane systems. Passive membrane systemsoperated with various periods of no inflow were considered and compared to a passivemembrane system operated with continuous inflow. The periods of no inflow consideredwere 3 hours per 24 hours, 8 hours per 24 hours and 2 days per week. For the passivemembrane systems operated with periods of no inflow, both conditions with no permeaterecycling (i.e., no flow through system) and permeate recycling (i.e., flow maintainedthrough system by recycling permeate) were considered.Results indicate that the periods of no inflow do not negatively impact the performance ofpassive membrane systems. Rather, periods of no inflow could lead to better performance.The results also provided insight on the relationship between the length of the periods of noinflow, the recycling of the permeate during periods of no inflow, and the overallperformance of passive membrane systems. In small and remote communities, the financialinvestment in equipment and operations for permeate recycling during periods of no inflowmight be outweighed by the increased water production when operated with permeaterecycling. Hence, for small and remote communities, operation of PGDMF systems withoutpermeate recycling during the periods of no inflow is ideal.

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Removing organic carbon (OC) from drinking water effectively while utilizing technologies that are both low cost and easy to operate poses challenges. Current available technologies are either very complex, expensive and/ or cannot achieve high removal efficiencies. Conventional biological filtration has long been used to remove OC from water however it has not done so effectively and therefore cannot be used as a standalone technology. Biological ion exchange (BIEX) is a new technology that promises to address the limitations of existing technologies. Initial studies have indicated that this technology is effective at reducing OC in water, further studies are needed to optimize the design parameters under a variety of environmental conditions. Previous studies on conventional (BAC) biofilters have indicated that empty bed contact time (EBCT) and operating temperature influences the efficacy of OC removal. The objective of the present study is to determine the EBCT needed in BIEX biofilters to effectively remove NOM at different temperatures. To determine the impact of EBCT on OC removal biofilters at three different EBCT (7.5, 15 and 30-minutes) and three different temperatures (4, 10 and 20°C) were operated for 150 days.Results from the present research indicate that BIEX biofilters more effectively remove OC from water than BAC biofilters. BIEX biofilters remove 46.5-77.5% OC while BAC biofilters remove 4.6-31.3% OC depending on the experimental conditions (temperature and EBCT). Statistical analysis indicated that both temperature and EBCT significantly impact OC removal in both BIEX and BAC biofilters. The temperature activity coefficients were calculated to be 1.044 and 1.066 for BIEX and BAC biofilters respectively indicating that temperature has a greater impact on OC removal for BAC biofilters than for BIEX biofilters. The rate constant for removal of OC was calculated for both BIEX and BAC biofilters and ranged from 0.156 to 0.312 min⁻¹ and 0.034 to 0.108 min⁻¹ respectively. These results indicate that BIEX biofilters can also remove OC at a higher rate than BAC biofilters. To ensure adequate removal of OC at all temperatures that were tested (90% removal of OC) BIEX and BAC biofilters require an EBCT of 55-minutes and 90-minutes respectively.

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Passive membrane filtration is a self-sustained process where an ultra-low permeate flux is maintained by hydrostatic pressure (i.e. gravity) and little to no fouling control measures are used. Due to their ultra-low permeate flux and ease of operation, passive membrane systems are particularly suited for small scale applications, such as decentralized water treatment in small and remote communities. A key aspect of passive membrane filtration is the development of a structurally loose and permeable biofilm layer that enables a sustainable flux to be achieved. The biofilm layer of passive membrane systems has also been associated with improved removal of humic acids, polysaccharides, proteins, assimilable organic carbon and microcystins.The present study investigated the contribution of the biofilm layer to the virus removal capacity of passive membrane systems. Intact and breached passive membrane modules were studied. Breach sizes considered ranged from 20 to 180µm. Challenge tests (CTs) identified an increase of more than 2.0 log in the log removal value (LRV) for viruses of both intact and breached passive membranes when a biofilm layer was present. As a result, intact and breached passive membranes consistently achieved an LRV for viruses of more than 4.0 log. The use of pressure decay tests (PDTs) to estimate the LRVs of passive membrane systems was also studied. The LRVs estimated using the standard PDT approach did not reflect the increase in LRVs detected in the CTs. Results suggested that the biofilm layer grows on top of the breaches, acting as a secondary barrier to contaminants that would otherwise bypass treatment by flowing through the breach. The standard PDT approach failed to estimate the LRVs of passive membranes because it was not developed to take into account the additional removal provided by the biofilm layer. An alternative integrity testing protocol for passive membrane systems is provided, which includes a modified PDT approach for estimation of LRVs.

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The source water for Coquitlam Water Treatment Plant (CWTP) originates from a watershed located in the mountains north of the City of Vancouver (BC, Canada), providing approximately 20% of the water demand for the metropolitan area. Treatment at CWTP consists of ozonation, followed by UV for primary disinfection and chlorination for secondary disinfection. Ozone is used to increase the UV transmittance (UVT) of the water, and to reduce the formation of chlorinated disinfection by-products (DBP) in the distribution system. Ozone addition at the CWTP is currently dosed proportionally to the flow being treated. This approach does not take into consideration the complex interactions that exist between varying raw water characteristics and ozone, and how these impact changes in UVT or DBP formation.Advanced numerical computational techniques, such as artificial neural networks (ANN), are increasingly being used to objectively identify optimal operating setpoints for complex systems. In the present study, two sets of ANN models were developed to optimize ozone addition for effective UV treatment and control of DBP formation. The first, the treatment system operation models, were used to predict pre-chlorination UVT, used as surrogate for the DBP formation potential, based on raw water characteristics and CWTP operational setpoints. The second, the distribution system models were used to predict the formation of total haloacetic acids (HAA), total trihalomethanes (THM) and two HAA fractions (DCAA and TCAA) in the distribution system based on raw and treated water characteristics. The treatment models could accurately predict pre-chlorination UVT. A moderate correlation was also observed between the measured and predicted DBP concentrations using the distribution system models, even though significant scatter was observed. This was likely due to the small available dataset and lack of reliable estimations of retention time and chlorine concentration in the distribution system.Scenario analyses with selected models were performed to investigate possible operational benefits of the implementation of these machine learning algorithms models to control ozone dosing. These suggested that savings could be achieved and high and constant level of pre-chlorination UVT could be maintained if ozone was dosed using these artificial neural network models.

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Ultrafiltration is a well-established technology for drinking water treatment. However, it is generally considered to be too complex and costly for use in resource-limited communities. Most of this complexity is associated with the auxiliary processes used for fouling control, notably backwashing, air sparging, and chemical cleaning.Recently, attempts have been made to develop passive membrane filtration systems which significantly reduce the complexity of conventional systems. With gravity-driven permeation, these systems are operated at sub-critical permeate flux with no to minimal fouling control. The biological communities that establish on the membrane surface under such conditions promote the formation of a porous foulant layer, thus decreasing its resistance and helping sustain the permeate flux.The sustained permeate flux can be further increased by retaining some simple fouling control measures which do not increase the complexity of the system. This study investigated two such measures: passive (gravity-driven) backwash and passive air sparging (with appropriate system design, the hydraulically generated vacuum during tank drain draws ambient air into the membrane tank, resulting in sparging).Passive backwashing for a duration of 5 minutes was observed to result in negligible fouling. For conditions when passive backwash could not effectively control fouling (backwash duration of 1-3 minutes), coupling it with passive air sparging also did not improve its efficacy for fouling control.These results were further validated at pilot-scale during operation spanning ~16 months. A passive membrane filtration system with a commercial ZeeWeed 1500 membrane module (filtration area of 50 m²), when exposed to passive backwash coupled with passive air sparging for 5 min/day, was able to sustain an average throughput of approximately 4650 l/day for the first 70 days of operation. The rate of decline in the throughput was minimal for the next 70 days of operation. It was only after 140 days of operation that the rate of decline in throughput was significant enough to warrant a recovery cleaning. Passive cleaning also prevented solids build-up in the system and aided in the removal of natural organic matter from raw water. A recovery cleaning approach to recover the permeability lost during long-term operation was also determined.

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The use of ultrafiltration (UF) membranes as a pre-treatment technology for seawater applications, such as desalination and water production for deep sea oil extraction, has expanded in recent years. Controlling fouling during filtration remains a crucial operational challenge, particularly in applications with equipment footprint constraints. The present study sought to investigate a simplified fouling control approach where chemically enhanced backwash (CEB) was the only technique utilized.Short-term benchmarking trials were performed to evaluate a wide range of operating conditions. These included: CEB duration, CEB frequency, CEB make up solution, and sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) concentration. Long-term trials were then completed to determine the viability of this approach, and provide operational insight for future applications.NaClO concentrations as low as 8 ppm were effective in achieving sustainable fouling rates in low temperature UF operation with CEB as the only fouling control approach. Extended CEBs using 150 ppm NaClO solutions were effective at restoring lost permeability, though may not be required for periods of 6 months or more. Both outside-in, and inside-out membrane configurations were evaluated, with outside-in observed to have a lower fouling rate. No difference was observed when comparing UF permeate and nanofiltration concentrate as CEB make up solutions. A new measure, termed ‘cleaning effort’ (i.e. the product of CEB duration and NaClO concentration divided by CEB frequency), was proposed to compare fouling control efficiency for different CEB operating conditions. Fouling rate followed an exponential decay relationship with respect to cleaning effort. Accumulation of active biomass on membrane fibers was not observed after long-term trials. Residual chlorine in the CEB reject stream was observed to be above regulatory limits, and decayed slowly.

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Traditional membrane filtration plants for drinking water require uninterrupted electricity for pumps and fouling control, thus making it unsuitable for small/rural communities and developing countries. Gravity driven passive membrane filtration systems can be a possible solution to this problem. Previous studies demonstrated that frequent air sparging is beneficial to maintaining a high permeate flux in passive membrane systems. Previous studies also reported that forward flushing after relaxation is also beneficial to maintaining a high permeate flux. Air sparging is an alternate solution to forward flushing after relaxation and considered in the present study.Four different air sparging rates were considered: no air sparging, continuous air sparging, 5 min/day and 5 min/2 days. Periodic air sparging significantly increased the steady-state permeability (0.39±0.003 B/Bi and 0.37±0.007 B/Bi for 5 min/ day and 5 min/2 days respectively) compared to conditions with no air sparging (0.21±0.006 B/Bi). The highest permeability (0.56±0.036 B/Bi) was achieved with continuous air sparging. Three different relaxation periods prior to periodic air sparging (5 min/day) were tested (1 hr, 4 hrs and 8 hrs). Relaxation prior to periodic air sparging increased the steady-state permeability (0.47±0.012 B/Bi and 0.41±0.023 B/Bi for 1 hr and 4 hrs relaxation period respectively) compared to condition without relaxation prior to air sparging (0.39±0.003 B/Bi). However, lower permeability was observed when a longer relaxation period (0.25±0.002 B/Bi for 8 hrs relaxation period) was considered.

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Submerged hollow fibre ultrafiltration (SHFUF) is an established drinking water treatment technology viable for community-scale use. It can effectively treat surface water up to 4-log removal of colloids, pathogenic bacteria, and viruses. However, current use of SHFUF in small/ remote communities is hindered by the system’s complexity and high construction and operating costs. The present study focuses on the development of a novel and simple SHFUF system that can operate passively and with limited mechanical complexity for the production of drinking water in small/ remote communities.The experimental program was divided into four main stages; each stage was instrumental in eliminating component of a SHFUF system that contributes to its complexity (ie. backwash, permeate pump, aeration and recovery cleaning) and achieving an optimized state feasible for a small community use. Surface water containing 6-7 ppm dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was used for the pilot-scale experiments. In Stage 1, the contributions of periodic backwash in SHFUF were assessed through a comparative study of with and without backwash systems at sub-critical fluxes of 10, 20 and 30 L/m²h. While the benefits of backwash were clearly observed at 30 L/m²h, backwash was less necessary at lower permeate fluxes. At 10 L/m²h, flux was successfully maintained over the 2-month operation without backwash, indicating that backwash can be eliminated when operating at a low flux. Elimination of backwash reduces power requirements, increases throughput, and simplifies the system. In Stage 2, further simplification to the system was achieved through gravity permeation at a constant hydrostatic pressure. Gravity permeation at 10 L/m²h could be maintained with a head of 37 mbar. In stage 3, further reduction in energy consumption was achieved through operations under reduced air sparging conditions. Although reduced aeration decreased the permeate flux that could be maintained, this decrease can be compensated by proportionally increasing the number of membrane modules. In stage 4, recovery cleaning was confirmed to recover all of the permeability loss during the 2-month operation. Results from the present study confirm that technical complexity and energy requirements of SHFUF can be substantially reduced and made feasible for use in small/ remote communities.

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Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are commonly used in wastewater treatment processes.In fact, the demand is expected to increase with more than double digitgrowth annually over the next decade [5]. However, operational costs of MBRs arestill higher compared to operational costs of conventional treatment plants due tothe additional aeration and pumping required in MBRs. This study examines thefeasibility of using excess air that was used to clean the membrane for water conveyance(known as airlift pump), for a minimized energy use in MBR processes.In order to meet the objective, prototypes of airlift pumps were built with differentdimensions. The experimental results of each prototype were comprehensivelycompared to existing models in the literature. The models were modified for a betterfit of the experimental data.It was determined whether a new apparatus, where many riser tubes were bundledtogether, would behave like many individual riser tubes. While the air was injectedat the bottom of the individual riser tube previously, the bundled riser tubes of thenew apparatus would be attached to a rubber sheet; this, was attached to a frame.The rubber sheet was added to the apparatus in order to trap the air in the tankand lead it to the bundle of riser tubes. Different collector angles of the rubber aswell as different water heights were investigated. The experimental results werecompared to the previously modified models.The last step was to design a system that redirects the pumped water so that it canbe transported back to the head of the MBR plant.The results suggest that air exiting to the atmosphere from an MBR can be used totransport the water. However, the models are only able to predict water flows forindividual airlift pumps that consist of a single riser tube, where the air is injected at its bottom. Further research needs to be done in order to be able to predict water flows that can be achieved in systems, such as the one proposed in this present study, which uses a bundle of riser tubes.

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The shear stress created by gas sparging has been widely recognized as a controlling factor in the fouling of submerged membrane systems. Effective gas sparging can significantly reduce the fouling and improve the membrane performance. Several factors, such as membrane module configuration, gas sparging tank configuration, gas sparging pattern and temperature, affect the hydrodynamic conditions around the membrane. Chan et al. (2011) reported that different types of shear profiles exist inside the submerged hollow fiber membrane module, and the different types of shear conditions have different effects on fouling control. In this thesis, the relationship between the shear stress generated by conventional sparging and a novel sparging approach on fouling control were studied. The results indicate that, to achieve the similar fouling control (fouling rate), only a quarter of energy (i.e air flow rate) input was required for the novel slug bubble sparger, compared to the conventional coarse bubble sparger.

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Powdered Activated Carbon (PAC) has been successfully used in conjunction with membrane ultrafiltration (UF) to reduce taste, odour, colour and other concerns caused by organic material present in raw drinking water sources. PAC addition also typically significantly reduces the extent of fouling in hybrid PAC/UF systems. However, in some cases, PAC addition can have a significant negative effect by increasing irreversible membrane fouling. The present study was developed to assess the cause of irreversible fouling in a system for which PAC addition had a negative effect. The first part of the study evaluated if irreversible fouling could potentially be due to the breakdown of PAC particles in a PAC/UF membrane system. Particle size analysis of the virgin PAC suggested that pore plugging was unlikely because the PAC was too large. However, when exposed to relatively high shear conditions typical of UF systems, the size of the PAC was observed to decrease to a range comparable to that of the size of the pores in the UF membranes used. However results from the analysis of a bench scale PAC/UF system suggested that irreversible fouling was not solely due to the direct plugging of membrane. The decrease in the permeability for the irreversibly fouled system with PAC was observed to be linear over time, suggesting that irreversible fouling was possible due to the formation of a cake layer by PAC. This was confirmed with FESEM imaging.The second part of the study aimed to characterize the foulants in the cake layer on PAC/UF hollow fibres. FESEM and SEM-EDX were performed to obtain insight on the characteristics of the membrane surface of the hollow fibres. Sonication and a novel solubilisation technique were used to analyze the foulants in/on the membrane surface of the hollow fibres. Organic and inorganic material extracted from the fouled membrane suggested that these have great influence on the PAC cake layer formation on membrane fibres. The results from the study indicate that PAC does not cause irreversible membrane fouling in PAC/UF systems by itself, but it may facilitate the absorption of organic and inorganic material causing irreversible fouling.

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Natural organic matter is a complex mixture of various organics including humic substances, carbohydrates, amino acids and carboxylic acids that exist in natural waters. Integrated treatment processes that combine oxidation processes and activated carbon biofilters have been shown to be effective at reducing natural organic matter (NOM) levels. The current research project investigated the effect of ozone and advanced oxidation at various doses on specific parameters including: biodegradability of NOM, formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs), change in apparent molecular weight (AMW) of NOM and dissolved organic carbon content (DOC). Overall, ozonation of the raw water at 2mg O₃/mg DOC resulted in significant reductions in aromatic material, resulting in lowered DBPFP. In addition, ozonation was successful at transforming NOM from high AMW to low AMW, rendering the organic material more biodegradable and preferentially removed during biofiltration. While the high-dose oxidants (ozonation at 25mg O₃/mg DOC and AOP treatment at 4000mJ/cm² and 10mg/L H₂0₂) were successful at reducing DOC, UVA, AMW and DBPFP, the elevated dose required make these options less realistic. Ozonation at 2mg O₃/mg DOC and AOP treatment at 2000mJ/cm² and 10mg/L H₂O₂ provide good reduction of UVA, AMW and DBPFP. The high dose oxidants are unsuitable as pre-treatment options for biofiltration given that they result in highly oxidized NOM that exhibited very little biodegradation during biofiltration. The lower dose oxidants are suitable pre-treatment options for biofiltration given the high reductions in UVA, AMW and DBPFP exhibited, and the similar biodegradation kinetics observed. Pre-oxidation prior to biofiltration is essential for removal of non-biodegradable DOC. The rate kinetics governing biodegradation were not sensitive to oxidant type or dose. Overall, this project provided beneficial insight into the operation of integrated treatment processes and the effect of these on several NOM characteristics including biodegradation.  

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