• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.211-223
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• 2017

In this work, an attempt was made to compare the effects of UV irradiation on the intrinsic and separation properties of membranes made of two different polymeric materials, i.e., polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and polyetherimide (PEI). The changes on membrane structural morphologies and chemical characteristics upon UV-A exposure (up to 60 h) were studied by FESEM and FTIR, respectively. It was found that cracks and fractures were detected on the PVDF-based membrane surface when the membrane was exposed directly to UV light for up to 60 h. Furthermore, the mechanical strength and thermal stability of irradiated PVDF-based membrane was reported to decrease with increasing UV exposure time. The PEI membrane surface meanwhile remained almost intact throughout the entire UV irradiation process. Filtration experiments showed that the permeate flux of UV-irradiated PVDF membrane was significantly increased from approximately 11 to $16L/m^2.h$ with increasing UV exposure time from zero to 60 h. Oil rejection meanwhile was decreased from 98 to 85%. For the PEI-based membrane, oil rejection of >97% was recorded and its overall structural integrity was marginally affected throughout the entire UV irradiation process. The findings of this work showed that the PEI-based membrane should be considered as the host for photocatalyts incorporation if the membrane was to be used for UV-assisted wastewater treatment process.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.157-175
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• 2007

The membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR) creates a natural partnership of a membrane and biofilm, because a gas-transfer membrane delivers a gaseous substrate to the biofilm that grows on the membrane's outer wall. $O_2$-based MBfRs (called membrane aerated biofilm reactors, or MABRs) have existed for much longer than $H_2$-based MBfRs, but the $O_2$-based MBfR is a versatile platform for reducing oxidized contaminants in many water-treatment settings: drinking water, ground water, wastewater, and agricultural drainage. Extensive bench-scale experimentation has proven that the $H_2$-based MBfR can reduce many oxidized contaminant to harmless or easily removed forms: e.g., ${NO_3}^-$ to $N_2$, ${ClO_4}^-$ to $H_2O$ and $Cl^-$, ${SeO_4}^{2-}$ to $Se^0$, and trichloroethene (TCE) to ethene and $Cl^-$. The MBfR has been tested at the pilot scale for ${NO_3}^-$ and ${ClO_4}^-$ and is now entering field-testing for many of the oxidized contaminants alone or in mixtures. For the MBfR to attain its full promise, several issues must be addressed by bench and field research: understanding interactions with mixtures of oxidized contaminants, treating waters with a high TDS concentration, developing modules that can be used in situ to augment pre-denitrification of wastewater, and keeping the capital costs low.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.204-208
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• 2014

This study investigated the effect of hydrogen permeance and selectivity, catalyst amount, $H_2O/CO$ ratio in a feed stream, and Ar sweep gas on the performance of a water gas shift reaction in a membrane reactor. It was observed that a minimum hydrogen selectivity of 100 was needed in a membrane reactor to obtain a hydrogen yield higher than the one at equilibrium and the hydrogen yield enhancement gradually decreased as the hydrogen permeance increased. The CO conversion in a membrane reactor initially increased with the catalyst amount and reached a plateau later for a membrane reactor with a low hydrogen permeance while the high CO conversion independent of a catalyst amount was observed for a membrane reactor with a high hydrogen permeance. For the $H_2O/CO$ ratio in a feed stream higher than 1.5, a hydrogen permeance had little effect on the CO conversion in a membrane reactor and it was found that a minimum Ar molar flow rate of $6.7{\times}10^{-6}mol\;s^{-1}$ was needed to achieve the CO conversion higher than the one at equilibrium in a membrane reactor.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.154-160
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• 1990

Hydroxypropyl methacrylate polymeric membranes having tertiary amine moiety were prepared to control the release rate of insulin in response to the concentration of glucose. Hydroxypropyl methacrylate was copolymerized with N, N'-diethylaminoethylacrylate. Its water content was increased with decreasing the pH of the medium and was reversible with variation of the pH of the medium. The permeation coefficient of insulin through copolymer membrane was also increased with decreasing the pH of the medium. Combining this copolymer membrane and the glucose oxidase immobilized membrane as a sensor for glucose, composite membrane was prepared. The permeability of this composite membrane was increased with addition of glucose.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.106-112
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• 1994

The ultrafiltration(UF) and reverse osmosis(RO) tests for a model metal plating wastewater prepared with zinc sulfate, showed the zinc ion rejection coefficient of over 99% and the permeate flux of $1.49 {\times} 10^{-3}cm/sec$ at pH = 8.3. The effect of cyanide on the zinc removal was investigated. When the amount of cyanide addition was same the zinc content, the zinc was removed over 99% and the cyanide was excluded about 93%. The addition of the surfactants such a LAS-Na and EDTA-Na was found to reduce the permeate flux down to $0.76 {\times} 10^{-3}cm/sec$ at the RO membrane.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.193-206
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• 2010

Organic fouling and biofouling pose a significant challenge to the membrane filtration process. Photocatalysis-membrane hybrid system is a novel idea for reducing these membranes fouling however, when $TiO_2 photocatalyst nanoparticles are used in suspension, catalyst recovery is not only imposes an extra step on the process but also significantly contributes to increased membrane resistance and reduced permeate flux. In this study, $TiO_2$ photocatalyst has been immobilized by coating on the microfiltration (MF) membrane surface to minimize organic and microbial fouling. Nano-sized $TiO_2$ was first synthesized by a sol-gel method. The synthesized $TiO_2$ was coated on a Poly Vinyl Difluoride (PVDF) membrane (MF) surface using spray coating and dip coating techniques to obtain hybrid functional composite membrane. The characteristics of the synthesized photocatalyst and a functional composite membrane were studied using numerous instruments in terms of physical, chemical and electrical properties. In comparison to the clean PVDF membrane, the $TiO_2$ coated MF membrane was found more effective in removing methylene blue (20%) and E-coli (99%).

• Membrane Journal
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.93-98
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• 2007

The reliability of innovative membrane contactors technology (i.e. Gas/Liquid Membrane Contactors, Membrane Distillation/Crystallization) is today increasing for seawater desalination processes, where traditional pressure-driven membrane separation units are routinely operated. Furthermore, conventional membrane operations can be integrated with membrane contactors in order to promote possible improvements in process efficiency, operational stability, environmental impact, water quality and cost. Seawater is the most abundant aqueous solution on the earth: the amount of dissolved salts covers about 3% of its composition, and six elements (Na, Mg, Ca, K, Cl, S) account for more than 90% of ionic species. Recent investigations on Membrane Distillation-Crystallization have shown the possibility to achieve significant overall water recovery factors, to limit the brine disposal problem, and to recover valuable salts (i.e. calcium sulphate, sodium chloride, magnesium sulphate) by combining this technology with conventional RO trains. In this work, the kinetics of $CaSO_4{\cdot}2H_2O,\;NaCl\;and\;MgSO_4{\cdot}7H_2O$ crystallization is experimentally investigated in order to improve the design of the membrane-based crystallization unit.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.62-68
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• 2010

The powder mixture for fabricating the cermet membranes was prepared by mechanically mixing 60 vol.% vanadium with $Y_2O_3$-stabilized $ZrO_2$ (YSZ). The powder mixture was pressed into disks, which were then sintered in vacuum at $1600^{\circ}C$ for 2 h. As-sintered membrane was dense and mounted to a stainless steel ring with brazing filler. Hydrogen fluxes of V/YSZ membrane have been measured in the range of $200{\sim}350^{\circ}C$ with 100% $H_2$. The crack was formed in the both sides of membrane at $350^{\circ}C$ and pressure of 0.5 bar. During permeation experiment, vanadium of V/YSZ membrane reacted with hydrogen to form $V_2H$ which was the origin of crack formation.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.257-275
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• 2016

The enantiomeric and racemic effects of tartaric acid (TA) on the properties of polysulfone (PSn) ultrafiltration membranes were studied in terms of morphology and hydrophilicity (HPCT) of membrane. Asymmetric membranes were prepared by direct blending of polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) with D-TA and DL-TA in membrane casting solution. FTIR analysis was done for the confirmation of the reaction of PVP and TA in blended membranes and plain PSn membranes. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used for analyzing the morphology and structure of the resulting membranes. The membranes were characterized in terms of pure water flux (PWF), hydraulic permeability and HPCT. PWF increased from $52L/m^2h$ to $79.9L/m^2h$ for plain and D-TA containing PSn membrane, respectively. Water contact angle also found to be decreased from $68^{\circ}$ to $55^{\circ}$. In Additionally, permeation and rejection behavior of prepared membranes was studied by bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution. A considerable increase in BSA flux (from $19.1L/m^2h$ for plain membrane to $32.1L/m^2h$ for D-TA containing membrane) was observed. FESEM images affirm that the pore size of the membranes decreases and the membrane permeability increases from 0.16 to 0.32 by the addition of D-TA in the membrane. D-TA increases the HPCT whereas; DL-TA decreases the HPCT of PSn membrane. PVP (average molecular weight of 40000 Da) with D-TA (1 wt%) gave best performance among all the membranes for each parameter.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.485-488
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• 2013

A SiC-$CeO_2$ composite membrane was successfully fabricated using an ally-hydridopolycarbosilane (AHPCS) binder and treated by dip-coating at 60 times with a $CeO_2$ sol solution. The dip-coated SiC membrane was calcined at 773 K and then sintered at 1173 K under an air atmosphere. The coated membrane was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and a BET surface analysis. The difference in permeation performance between $H_2$ and CO gases was measured by varying the temperature. The permeation flux of $H_2$ on the SiC membrane with layered $CeO_2$ was obtained as $8.45{\times}10^{-6}\;mol/m^2sPa$ at room temperature. The CO permeation flux was $2.64{\times}10^{-6}\;mol/m^2sPa$ at room temperature. The reaction enthalpy (${\Delta}H^{\circ}$) for the hydrogen permeation process was calculated as -7.82 J/mol by Arrhenius plots.