Selection of Optimal Nanofiltration/Reverse Osmosis (NF/RO) Membranes for the Removal of Organic Micropollutants from Drinking Water

The growing presence of organic micropollutants (OMPs) in water sources is a major health concern. Successful removal of OMPs from water sources and ensuring the cleanliness of drinking water has become an important topic in recent years. In this study, 15 nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) commercial membranes were selected and their potential to remove 10 frequently encountered OMPs in drinking water, with systematically different chemical characteristics, was evaluated. To quickly identify the most promising membranes, high throughput dead-end filtrations were initially conducted. Subsequently, the 4 best performing membranes were used in a more relevant high-throughput cross-flow filtration. Membrane performance was evaluated by analyzing OMP concentrations in the feed and retentates of the different membranes using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS). This study identified NF 90 (Dow), NF 270 (Dow), NFX (Synder) and TS80 (Trisep) as membranes with superior performance, with a permeance between 3 and 7 L.m-2.h^-1.bar^-1 and retentions that were generally around 90%, except for NFX which showed slightly lower retentions.