Role of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in biofouling of reverse osmosis membranes.

This study elucidates the mechanisms by which extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) impact permeate water flux and salt rejection during biofouling of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. RO fouling experiments were conducted with Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1, EPS extracted from PAO1 biofilms, and dead PAO1 cells fixed in formaldehyde. While a biofouling layer of dead bacterial cells decreases salt rejection and permeate flux by a biofilm-enhanced osmotic pressure mechanism, the EPS biofouling layer adversely impacts permeate flux by increasing the hydraulic resistance to permeate flow. During controlled fouling experiments with extracted EPS in a simulated wastewater solution, polysaccharides adsorbed on the RO membranes much more effectively than proteins (adsorption efficiencies of 61.2-88.7% and 11.6-12.4% for polysaccharides and proteins, respectively). Controlled fouling experiments with EPS in sodium chloride solutions supplemented with 0.5 mM calcium ions (total ionic strength of 15 mM) indicate that calcium increases the adsorption efficiency of polysaccharides and DNA by 2- and 3-fold, respectively. The increased adsorption of EPS onto the membrane resulted in a significant decrease in permeate water flux. Corroborating with these calcium effects, atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements demonstrated that addition of calcium ions to the feed solution results in a marked increase in the adhesion forces between a carboxylated particle probe and the EPS layer. The increase in the interfacial adhesion forces is attributed to specific EPS-calcium interactions that play a major role in biofouling of RO membranes.