Enhanced antimony(V) removal using synergistic effects of Fe hydrolytic flocs and ultrafiltration membrane with sludge discharge evaluation.

The integration of adsorbents with ultrafiltration (UF) membranes is a promising method for alleviating membrane fouling and reducing land use. However, a number of problems have become apparent concerning the granular adsorbents used currently, such as high running cost, high chance of causing membrane surface damage, low in situ chemical cleaning efficiency, etc. Herein, to overcome these disadvantages, loose in situ hydrolyzed flocs were directly injected into the membrane tank, providing strong adsorption ability at low cost. To test the feasibility of this method, the heavy metal pollutant antimony (Sb (V)) in a water plant was chosen at a test case, which is similar to arsenic and difficult to remove. We found that Fe-based flocs integrated with an UF membrane showed a large potential advantage in removing Sb(V), even after running for 110 days. We demonstrated that the observed slow transmembrane pressure development could be ascribed to the loose floc cake layer formed, even though some extracellular polymeric substances were induced during operation. We also found that the floc cake layer was easily removed by washing with feed water or dissolved by in situ chemical cleaning under strongly acidic conditions, and many primary membrane pores were clearly observed. In addition, a relative long sludge discharge interval was feasible for this technology and the effluent quality was good, including the turbidity, chromaticity and iron concentration. Based on the excellent performance, these flocs integrated with UF membranes indeed show potential for application in water treatment.