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Ceramic membrane fouling mechanisms and control for water treatment

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Abstract

Membrane separation, as an important drinking water treatment technology, has wide applications. The remarkable advantages of ceramic membranes, such as chemical stability, thermal stability, and high mechanical strength, endow them with broader prospects for development. Despite the importance and advantages of membrane separation in water treatment, the technique has a limitation: membrane fouling, which greatly lowers its effectiveness. This is caused by organics, inorganic substances, and microorganisms clogging the pore and polluting the membrane surface. The increase in membrane pollution greatly lowers purification effectiveness. Controlling membrane fouling is critical in ensuring the efficient and stable operation of ceramic membranes for water treatment. This review analyzes four mechanisms of ceramic membrane fouling, namely complete blocking, standard blocking, intermediate blocking, and cake filtration blocking. It evaluates the mechanisms underlying ceramic membrane fouling and summarizes the progress in approaches aimed at controlling it. These include ceramic membrane pretreatment, ceramic membrane surface modification, membrane cleaning, magnetization, ultrasonics, and nanobubbles. This review highlights the importance of optimizing ceramic membrane preparation through further research on membrane fouling and pre-membrane pretreatment mechanisms. In addition, combining process regulations with ceramic membranes as the core is an important research direction for ceramic membrane-based water treatment.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2021YFC3201304).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science & Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Cheng Cai

  2. School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Wenjun Sun, Siyuan He, Yuanna Zhang & Xuelin Wang

  3. Research Institute for Environmental Innovation (Suzhou), Tsinghua, Suzhou, 215163, China

    Cheng Cai & Wenjun Sun

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  1. Cheng Cai
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  2. Wenjun Sun
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  3. Siyuan He
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  4. Yuanna Zhang
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  5. Xuelin Wang
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Correspondence to Wenjun Sun.

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Declaration of Interests

The authors state that they have no known competitive financial interests or personal relationships that may affect the work reported in this paper.

Highlights

• The fouling is summarized based on ceramic membrane performance and pollutants.

• The current research methods and theoretical models are summarized.

• The membrane fouling control methods and collaborative technology are reviewed.

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Cai, C., Sun, W., He, S. et al. Ceramic membrane fouling mechanisms and control for water treatment. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 17, 126 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-023-1726-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-023-1726-9

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