BIOCIDE-FREE ANTIFOULING STRATEGY TO PROTECT RO MEMBRANES FROM BIOFOULING

The biofouling potential in industrial water systems consists of micro bial biofilms and nutrients which can be considered as potential bioma ss. The basic mechanism of biofilm development involves the conversion of dissolved nutrients into locally accumulated biomass. Biofouling o ccurs only when the extent of biofilm growth meets a threshold of inte rference. It is not necessary to kill all biofilms - it is possible to live with biofilms as long as this operational defined threshold of i nterference is not exceeded. The concept presented involves a biofilte r upstream of a system to be protected, As biofilm growth is limited b y the amount of nutrients available, the growth of biofilms in the bio filter will occur at the expense of the nutrients determined as biodeg radable dissolved organic carbon (BDOC). Thus, downsteam of the reacto r the nutrient concentration is reduced and less biofilm develops in s ystems. This concept has been investigated in an heat exchanger plant system with RO-systems and proved to be feasible.