Effects of cold temperature and chemical cleaning on performance, membrane fouling and its control in drinking water membrane filtration

膜过滤技术具有去除污染物效果好、效率高、占地面积小、操作简单、过滤寿命长、无固体、无病原体、无病毒、无细菌等优点，已广泛应用于世界各地的饮用水生产。然而，温度是影响膜过滤性能的重要因素。加拿大的地理位置导致许多城市每年有几个月的低温。在饮用水生产中，低温对膜过滤有显著的负面影响。每年，由于操作和膜清洁不良以及低温下膜结构劣化，每个膜过滤装置以膜更换的形式浪费数千美元。此外，化学清洗通常用于膜污染控制。一些广泛使用的化学清洗剂，如次氯酸钠，对膜结构有显著的负面影响，从而导致膜老化并降低膜寿命。因此，寻找这些清洁剂的替代品是非常期望的。拟议的研究将开发一个改进的基本理解的影响，低温和化学清洗膜的性能，污染及其控制，和膜结构进行实验室，试点，和全面的研究。将开发新的操作和膜清洗策略，以优化加拿大寒冷地区饮用水膜过滤厂的性能。这项研究的结果将有助于饮用水膜过滤厂最大限度地提高生产率，最大限度地减少膜污染，减少化学品使用和运营成本，并延长膜寿命。

Membrane filtration technology has been widely used for drinking water production all over the world, due to its advantages in better removal of contaminants, high efficiency, small footprint, easy operation, long filtration life, and superior quality of drinking water-free of solids, pathogens, virus and bacteria. However, temperature is a significant factor that affects the performance of membrane filtration. The geographical locations of Canada lead to months of cold temperature each year for many municipalities. The cold temperature has dramatically negative influence on membrane filtration in drinking water production. Each year, thousands of dollars are wasted in each membrane filtration plant in the form of membrane replacements, due to poor operation and membrane cleaning, and membrane structure deterioration in cold temperature. Furthermore, chemical cleanings are routinely used for membrane fouling control. Some of the widely used chemical cleaning agents, such as sodium hypochlorite, have significantly negative impact on membrane structure and thus cause membrane aging and reduce membrane lifespan. Thus, finding replacements for these cleaning agents are highly desirable. The proposed study will develop an improved fundamental understanding of the effect of cold temperature and chemical cleaning on membrane performance, fouling and its control, and membrane structure by conducting bench-, pilot-, and full-scale studies. New operating and membrane cleaning strategies will be developed to optimize the performance of drinking water membrane filtration plants in cold regions in Canada. The findings from this study will help drinking water membrane filtration plants to maximize productivity, minimize membrane fouling, reduce chemical usage and operating costs, and extend membrane lifespan.