Design of a biologically-mediated manganese removal system with ultrafiltration membranes

The purpose of this thesis is to propose an innovative system to integrate biologicallycatalyzed oxidation of manganese with ultrafiltration membranes for drinking water treatment. The published literature dealing specifically with biological processes in membrane filtration systems is very limited. The literature review is divided into two related subthemes. The first part of the literature review concentrates on recent advances in biologically-mediated oxidation of manganese, while the second addresses the necessary conditions to operate a membrane filtration system including how biofouling can affect performance. Manganese in drinking water causes taste and odor problems as well as other nuisance problems such as discoloration of laundry and staining of fixtures. Manganese can also cause severe corrosion problems. Biological manganese oxidation is currently being explored and evaluated by different researchers and institutions such as the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). iii Chlorine oxidation of manganese has become increasingly problematic due to the EPA rule on disinfectant byproducts (DBP), making it necessary to find alternative processes. Biologically-catalyzed oxidation of manganese is still not fully understood and a standardized process that can be deployed to treat waters with high concentrations of manganese has yet to be developed. It is thus necessary to build a pilot system that can later be scaled up for field application. Based on findings from studies by other researchers, a full-scale system was designed based on a 2 million gallon per day (MGD) flow rate in order to understand the footprint such a system would have compared to a traditional water treatment plant. A pilot-scale system was designed based on the full-scale system in order to provide a basis for possible further research and laboratory testing of the system. The pilot-scale design shows that it is possible to build a biologically-catalyzed manganese removal treatment system integrated with ultrafiltration membranes with a relatively small footprint. However, the design presented here is based on many presumptions that remain to be confirmed once the pilot-scale system is built. With the data from the pilot-scale systems, adjustments can be made to the system for eventual field implementation.M.S.Includes bibliographical referencesby Carlos Andres Corre