Removal of micropollutants during drinking water production from surface water with nanofiltration

Occurrence of organic micropollutants in surface water, and thus potential drinking water supplies, raises concerns about the safety of the drinking water. Nanofiltration has been proposed as a potential technology to remove micropollutants. The removal efficiency with nanofiltration depends on the molecular weight and hydrophobicity of these compounds, therefore in this research retention by different nanofiltration membranes will be assessed taking these two factors into account.

The hydrophobicity has clearly an influence on the retention of organic compounds. The combined effect of hydrophobicity and molecular weight will be further monitored for different organic micropollutants. Table 2 Average retention of different compounds with UTC-20 and NF210 [3] Compounds MW Log Kow Retention UTC-20 Estradiol Estrone Salicine 272,39 270,37 286,28 3.94 3.43 –1.41 75 ± 9 83 ± 3 >97 NF210 85 ± 4 65 ± 3 91 ± 1