Comparing membrane and spacer biofouling by Gram-negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Gram-positive Anoxybacillus sp. in forward osmosis.
Bacteria of different Gram-types have inherently different outer cell structures, influencing cell surface properties and bacterial attachment. Dynamic biofouling experiments were conducted over four days in a bench-scale forward osmosis (FO) system with Gram-negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Gram-positive Anoxybacillus sp. Biofouling resulted in ∼10% decline in FO permeate water flux and was found to be significant for Anoxybacillus sp. but not for P. aeruginosa. Additionally, a stronger permeate water flux decline for P. aeruginosa in experiments with a superhydrophilic feed spacer demonstrated that mitigation methods require testing with different bacterial Gram-types. It was found that although permeate water flux decline can be affected by bacterial Gram-type the stable performance under enhanced biofouling conditions highlights the potential of FO for wastewater reclamation.
['Bogler|Anne|A|', 'Rice|Douglas|D|', 'Perreault|Francois|F|', 'Bar-Zeev|Edo|E|']
D058677:Anoxybacillus D018441:Biofilms D057219:Biofouling D002244:Carbon D008567:Membranes, Artificial D018613:Microscopy, Confocal D009995:Osmosis D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa D013499:Surface Properties D062065:Waste Water D018508:Water Purification
biofouling Forward osmosis wastewater bacteria Gram-type spacer modification