DAF pretreatment achieves high-efficiency algae removal

摘要

Seasonal harmful algae blooms (HABs), commonly referred to as red tides, cause serious problems for desalination pretreatment in coastal cities. Algae blooms not only cause reverse osmosis (RO) membrane fouling, they can also be responsible for shutting down desalination plants, causing taste and odor problems, and some may even release toxic substances. Dissolved air flotation (DAF) is a high-rate clarification technology that plays an important role in pretreatment of seawater desalination using RO membranes. The high algae removal efficiencies achieved by DAF protect downstream membrane processes from fouling and shutting down during red-tide events.