Investigation of Adsorption-Deposition Behavior of Natural Organic Matter Fouling On Polysulfone Ultrafiltration Membrane

Natural organic matter (NOM), e.g. humic acid (HA), is a major foulant during ultrafiltration process of surface water. The research objective of this study is to investigate the differences between adsorption and deposition behavior of HA foulant on Polysulfone ultrafiltration process.  Data were obtained by comparing the isothermal adsorption of powder polysulfone - humic acid with polysulfone membrane - humic acid. The experimental design was divided in to two sets of experiments.  First set polysulfone powder with humic acid under different concentrations, ionic strength and time interval, was stirred and filtered. The filtrate was analyzed by UV-visible spectroscopy for HA. The second set was synthetic Polysulfone membrane in cross -flow and dead end filtration system with humic acid at the same conditions and same analyzing method. Results showed that there was not any adsorption of HA on polysulfone powder while HA fouling on polysulfone membrane was significant.