Abstract
Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are widely used for desalination plant. However, membrane biofouling cause decreasing membrane performance. This work focused on finding optimum cleaning conditions in RO membrane processes. The effect of cleaning conditions such as agent concentration, temperature and cleaning time on cleaning efficiency were investigated in Centers for Disease Control (CDC) annular biofilm reactor. Alkaline cleaning agent, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) which is well known for removing organic foulant on membrane, was used. Total bacteria number was measured with diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) dye and cell viability were analyzed by using two different DNA-binding dyes (SYTO9/PI). The optimum temperature, cleaning time and cleaning agent concentration were found as 30 degrees C, 20 min and 1.0 wt%, respectively.