A clear view of biofouling in spacer filled membrane filtration channels: Integrating OCT and CT for improved visualization and localization

Spiral wound membrane elements for reverse osmosis (RO) seawater desalination are increasingly important to produce clean water to cope with the rising global freshwater scarcity. Spiral wound elements are prone to biofouling development which can be monitored in-situ using optical coherence tomography (OCT). Although OCT has emerged as a dominant technology for nondestructive monitoring of membrane fouling, the application of OCT to study fouling on feed spacers has been limited because image processing of spacers is complex. In this study, an automated image processing algorithm was developed for visualization and quantification of fouling in spacer filled channels. The spacer shadow was used to estimate the location of the spacer in the OCT image. Subsequently, a computed tomography (CT) scan of the same spacer type was overlaid, providing a clear indicator of the spacer position. The spacer position was used to i) correct the distortion below the spacer, ii) visualize fouling in 3D with reference to the membrane and spacer, and iii) reproducibly and precisely locate images to make time series and compare parallel experiments. The results showed that the addition of a spacer geometry as a solid object in a 3D representation of an OCT-scan greatly improves visualization, because fouling and the spacer can be distinguished and the position of fouling relative to the spacer and membrane can be clearly seen. Moreover, the ability to select a dataset relative to the orientation of the spacer will enable objective and automated quantitative analysis in future work.