Scottish Water (SW) conducted a pilot-scale evaluation of in-line coagulation (ILCA®) and ceramic membrane filtration with a mobile pilot plant from February to May 2019 at the site of Turriff Water Treatment Works (WTW). The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the performance of ILCA® and CeraMac® for treating water from the river Deveron. The water source can be challenging to the existing WTW which uses rapid gravity filters (RGFs) and a robust barrier such as ceramic membranes could be considered in the future.
In general, the ILCA® + CeraMac® with polyaluminium chloride coagulation was able to operate at a sustainable flux of 175 lmh, with low TMP and a long cleaning interval. Higher flux operation to about 220 lmh is also possible.
The filtrate water quality from the ceramic membrane was excellent and also had impressively low total and intact cell counts, and ILCA®+CeraMac® achieved more dissolved organic carbon (DOC) than the existing treatment. Zeta potential was also used to monitor coagulation chemistry to observe the impact on membrane performance.
