New insights into the cleaning mechanisms of conductive membrane by NaClO and electric field in terms of protein and polysaccharide degradation

Membrane fouling can be effectively alleviated by using conductive membrane and external electric field in membrane bioreactor. However, the transformation and removal mechanism of foulants during the electrochemical process needs to be further explored. The present work investigated the degradation mechanisms and cleaning efficiency of organic foulants by electric field and sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) on the composite conductive microfiltration membranes. The results show that the electrochemical oxidation obtained a great degradation efficiency of bovine serum albumin (BSA) at current densities of 40 and 80 A/m², which was equivalent to that of high-dose NaClO (160 mg/L). However, the degradation efficiency of sodium alginate (SA) was much lower than that of BSA under the same cleaning strategy, due to its strong antioxidant activity. It was also found that NaClO oxidation can decompose BSA macromolecules into small molecules instead of mineralization, while electrochemical oxidation can convert dissolved BSA into foams and flocs by electrocoagulation, thus reducing the BSA concentration in the solution. During the electrochemical cleaning, indirect electrochemical oxidation through the formation of strong oxidants played an important role in the degradation of BSA and SA, and the role of OH· was more significant than that of O₂·^-. The combination of electric fields and NaClO showed great membrane cleaning efficiency. Moreover, the combination of electrochemical cleaning could not only prevent a large number of precursors from being converted to halogenated by-products, but also shorten the chlorination time and reduce the chlorine concentration, which can alleviate the secondary pollution of cleaning solution.