Cleaning efficacy of hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin for biofouling reduction on reverse osmosis membranes

Abstract In this study, an environmentally friendly compound, hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HP-β-CD) was applied to clean reverse osmosis (RO) membranes fouled by microorganisms. The cleaning with HP-β-CD removed the biofilm and resulted in a flux recovery ratio (FRR) of 102%. As cleaning efficiency is sometimes difficult to determine using flux recovery data alone, attached bacterial cells and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) were quantified after cleaning the biofouled membrane with HP-β-CD. Membrane surface characterization using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) confirmed the effectiveness of HP-β-CD in removal of biofilm from the RO membrane surface. Finally, a comparative study was performed to investigate the competitiveness of HP-β-CD with other known cleaning agents such as sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), Tween 20, rhamnolipid, nisin, and surfactin. In all cases, HP-β-CD was superior.

[1]  J. Ippolito,et al.  Hydrogen bond stereochemistry in protein structure and function. , 1990, Journal of molecular biology.

[2]  C. Xi,et al.  Evaluation of Different Methods for Extracting Extracellular DNA from the Biofilm Matrix , 2009, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

[3]  M. Brusseau,et al.  Cyclopentanol-enhanced solubilization of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by cyclodextrins. , 1995, Environmental science & technology.

[4]  H. Flemming,et al.  Biofilm Control: Conventional and Alternative Approaches , 2008 .

[5]  Linhua Fan,et al.  Biofouling of Water Treatment Membranes: A Review of the Underlying Causes, Monitoring Techniques and Control Measures , 2012, Membranes.

[6]  J. Szejtli.  Introduction and General Overview of Cyclodextrin Chemistry. , 1998, Chemical reviews.

[7]  Roger A. Rajewski,et al.  Cyclodextrins: Their Future in Drug Formulation and Delivery , 1997, Pharmaceutical Research.

[8]  H. Flemming.  Biofouling in Water Treatment , 1991 .

[9]  Diby Paul,et al.  Vanillin, a potential agent to prevent biofouling of reverse osmosis membrane , 2010, Biofouling.

[10]  S. V. Joshi,et al.  Probing the structural variations of thin film composite RO membranes obtained by coating polyamide over polysulfone membranes of different pore dimensions , 2006 .

[11]  Cesar A. López,et al.  Molecular Mechanism of Cyclodextrin Mediated Cholesterol Extraction , 2011, PLoS Comput. Biol..

[12]  Robert Armon,et al.  Inhibition of biofilm formation on UF membrane by use of specific bacteriophages , 2009 .

[13]  Masahiko Hirose,et al.  Effect of skin layer surface structures on the flux behaviour of RO membranes , 1996 .

[14]  Benny D. Freeman,et al.  Reverse osmosis desalination: water sources, technology, and today's challenges. , 2009, Water research.

[15]  Cong-jie Gao,et al.  Improving the performance of polyamide reverse osmosis membrane by incorporation of modified multi-walled carbon nanotubes , 2014 .

[16]  É. Fenyvesi,et al.  Removal of emerging micropollutants from water using cyclodextrin. , 2014, The Science of the total environment.

[17]  Richard E. Lenski,et al.  Effect of resource enrichment on a chemostat community of bacteria and bacteriophage , 1997 .

[18]  E. D. Valle,et al.  Cyclodextrins and their uses: a review , 2004 .

[19]  A. Hedges.  Industrial Applications of Cyclodextrins. , 1998, Chemical reviews.

[20]  Seunghyun Kim,et al.  Effect of surface properties of reverse osmosis membranes on biofouling occurrence under filtration conditions , 2011 .

[21]  Seockheon Lee,et al.  Evaluation of surface properties of reverse osmosis membranes on the initial biofouling stages under no filtration condition , 2010 .

[22]  G. Anderluh,et al.  Kinetics of cholesterol extraction from lipid membranes by methyl-beta-cyclodextrin--a surface plasmon resonance approach. , 2008, Biochimica et biophysica acta.

[23]  Akira Harada,et al.  Cyclodextrin-based supramolecular polymers , 2009 .

[24]  Hong Liu,et al.  Extraction of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) of sludges. , 2002, Journal of biotechnology.

[25]  K. A. Connors,et al.  The Stability of Cyclodextrin Complexes in Solution. , 1997, Chemical reviews.

[26]  T. N. Bhat,et al.  The Protein Data Bank , 2000, Nucleic Acids Res..

[27]  A J Mawson,et al.  Membrane Cleaning in the Dairy Industry: A Review , 2005, Critical reviews in food science and nutrition.

[28]  J. M. Arnal,et al.  Membrane Cleaning , 2012 .

[29]  M. Elimelech,et al.  Biofouling of reverse osmosis membranes: Role of biofilm-enhanced osmotic pressure , 2007 .

[30]  Tai Hyun Park,et al.  Design of TiO2 nanoparticle self-assembled aromatic polyamide thin-film-composite (TFC) membrane as an approach to solve biofouling problem , 2003 .

[31]  M. R. Bird,et al.  Measuring and modelling flux recovery during the chemical cleaning of MF membranes for the processing of whey protein concentrate , 2002 .

[32]  Hans-Curt Flemming,et al.  Microbial Biofouling: Unsolved Problems, Insufficient Approaches, and Possible Solutions , 2011 .

[33]  M. Vieira,et al.  A review of current and emergent biofilm control strategies , 2010 .

[34]  V. Kalia,et al.  Biofouling Control by Quorum Quenching , 2015 .

[35]  Diby Paul,et al.  2(5H)-Furanone: A Prospective strategy for biofouling-control in membrane biofilm bacteria by quorum sensing inhibition. , 2010 .

[36]  Maung Htun Oo,et al.  Dead-end ultrafiltration for pretreatment of RO in reclamation of municipal wastewater effluent , 2004 .

[37]  Jeremy S. Webb,et al.  Nitric oxide‐mediated dispersal in single‐ and multi‐species biofilms of clinically and industrially relevant microorganisms , 2009, Microbial biotechnology.

[38]  M. Molnár,et al.  Cyclodextrins in innovative engineering tools for risk-based environmental management , 2011 .

[39]  E. Casey,et al.  The importance of laboratory water quality for studying initial bacterial adhesion during NF filtration processes. , 2013, Water research.

[40]  J. Mascetti,et al.  Organization of beta-cyclodextrin under pure cholesterol, DMPC, or DMPG and mixed cholesterol/phospholipid monolayers. , 2008, Langmuir.

[41]  Thomas Melin,et al.  State-of-the-art of reverse osmosis desalination , 2007 .

[42]  Pierre Le-Clech,et al.  Do biological-based strategies hold promise to biofouling control in MBRs? , 2013, Water research.

[43]  Q. Guo,et al.  The Driving Forces in the Inclusion Complexation of Cyclodextrins , 2002 .