Energy Consumption and Environmental Impact Analysis of Ozonation Catalytic Membrane Filtration System for Water Treatment

摘要

Productivity of water filtration can be improved with ceramic membranes when compared with polymeric membranes because of their higher stability, longer lifetime, and higher permeability. Use of ozonation in combination with manganese oxide-coated ceramic membrane filtration has been shown to reduce membrane fouling. In this study, life cycle assessment was conducted to analyze the energy consumption and environmental impacts of the catalytic ceramic membrane system, which were then compared with that of hollow fiber membrane filtration. For both systems, the analysis was accomplished for a treatment plant with a capacity of 34,100 m~(3)/day (9 MGD). Energy consumption and environmental impacts were determined for membrane pressurization, backwashing, chlorine injection for hollow fiber membrane treatment disinfection or ozone injection for ceramic membrane fouling control and disinfection processes, and membrane modules manufacturing. Results showed that ceramic membrane combined with ozonation could save energy costs for pressurization and backwashing, but ozone generation consumed more energy than chlorine disinfection. Catalytic membrane filtration also had a lower environmental impact than polymeric membrane filtration. Innovative technologies to reduce energy consumption for production of ozone, optimize ozone mass transfer efficiency, or develop new membrane coating materials are expected to make the ceramic membrane filtration processes more energy-efficient and environmental- friendly.