• Clean Technology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.13-21
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• 2014

Because of the water scarcity caused by the increase of salinity in the underground water, seawater desalination stands out as one of the most promising solution. As there are so much energy costs in operating desalination plants, new hybrid process which is more effective should be researched. A geothermal VMD (vacuum membrane distillation) hybrid process is a competitive alternative for seawater desalination. Because geothermal energy has significant characteristics of high capacity factor to operate the power plant at full capacity for 24 hour per day, it can be a priority heat source of VMD superior to any other renewable energies such as solar and wind power. In this study, we design a geothermal VMD hybrid process, analyze it economically and finally compare the result with a case of conventional VMD process. Geothermal VMD hybrid process generates $23,822,409 of NPV (net present value) more than the conventional VMD process in case of 5% discount rate. The break-even point between these processes is 5.36 year. Sensitivity analysis indicates that steam cost is the most decisive influence variable to the economic outcome.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.23-31
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• 2014

This study was accomplished to get the foundation design data of VMD(Vacuum Membrane Distillation) system for Solar Thermal VMD plant. VMD experiment was designed to evaluate thermal performance of VMD using PVDF(polyvinylidene fluoride) hollow fiber hydrophobic membranes. The total membrane surface area in a VMD module is $5.3m^2$. Experimental equipments to evaluate VMD system consists of various parts such as VMD module, heat exchanger, heater, storage tank, pump, flow meter, micro filter. The experimental conditions to evaluate VMD module were salt concentration, temperature, flow rate of feed sea water. Salt concentration of feed water were used by aqueous NaCl solutions of 25g/l, 35g/l and 45g/l concentration. As a result, increase in permeate flux of VMD module is due to the increasing feed water temperature and feed water flow rate. Also, decrease in permeate flux of VMD module is due to increasing salinity of feed water. VMD module required about 590 kWh/day of heating energy to produce $1m^3/day$ of fresh water.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.301-307
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• 2018

Membrane distillation (MD) is a thermally driven desalination process with a hydrophobic membrane. MD process has been known to have a lower fouling potential compared to other pressure-based membrane desalination process (NF, RO). However, membrane fouling also occurs in MD process. In this study, the membrane fouling was observed in MD process according to the pre-treatment processes. The filtration and precipitation processes were applied as the pre-treatment to prevent the membrane fouling. The pore sizes of roughing filters were 0.4, 5, 10, 30, and $60{\mu}m$. The concentration of the coagulant was 1.2 mg/L as $FeCl_3$. The membrane fouling on MD membrane was successfully removed with both pre-treatment processes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.339-346
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• 2017

In this study, thermal performance test of VMD module was performed, prior to the construction of the demonstration plant using the vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) module of the capacity of $400m^3/day$ and to the commercialization of the VMD module. For the thermal performance test, the experimental equipment of capacity of $2m^3/day$ was constructed. The permeate flux test and thermal performance test according to feed water conditions such as temperature and flow rate were conducted. The VMD module used in the study was manufactured by ECONITY Co., LTD with PVDF hollow fiber membrane. As a result, the Performance Ratio (PR) of the VMD module showed the maximum value of 0.904 under the condition of feed water temperature of $75^{\circ}C$ and flow rate of $8m^3/h$. PR value of the VMD module using PVDF hollow fiber membrane showed linearly increasing relationship with feed water temperature and flow rate. Also, The permeate flux of the VMD module was analyzed to have maximum value of 18.25 LMH and the salt rejection was 99.99%.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.313-319
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• 2016

In this study, the performance experiment was conducted to compare the permeate flux of hollow fiber Vacuum Membrane Distillation module according to leak problem between module housing and membrane bundle. For the permeate flux performance experiment of the two Vacuum Membrane Distillation modules, the Lab-scale experimental equipment was built in the capacity of $1m^3/day$. The performance test of the two Vacuum Membrane Distillation modules were analyzed according to the feed water conditions. As a result, it was analyzed that the leak VMD module decreased about 14% of permeate flux than normal VMD module.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.181-190
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• 2023

Wastewater purification is one of the most important techniques for controlling environmental pollution and fulfilling the demand for freshwater supply. Various technologies, such as different types of distillations and reverse osmosis processes, need higher energy input. Capacitive deionization (CDI) is an alternative method in which power consumption is deficient and works on the supercapacitor principle. Research is going on to improve the electrode materials to improve the efficiency of the process. A reverse electrodialysis (RED) is the most commonly used desalination technology and osmotic power generator. Among many studies conducted to enhance the efficiency of RED, MXene, as an ion exchange membrane (IEM) and 2D nanofluidic channels in IEM, is rising as a promising way to improve the physical and electrochemical properties of RED. It is used alone and other polymeric materials are mixed with MXene to enhance the performance of the membrane further. The maximum desalination performances of MXene with preconditioning, Ti₃C₂T_x, Nafion, and hetero-structures were respectively measured, proving the potential of MXene for a promising material in the desalination industry. In terms of osmotic power generating via RED, adopting MXene as asymmetric nanofluidic ion channels in IEM significantly improved the maximum osmotic output power density, most of them surpassing the commercialization benchmark, 5 Wm^-2. By connecting the number of unit cells, the output voltage reaches the point where it can directly power the electronic devices without any intermediate aid. The studies around MXene have significantly increased in recent years, yet there is more to be revealed about the application of MXene in the membrane and osmotic power-generating industry. This review discusses the electrodialysis process based on MXene composite membrane.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.279-284
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• 2016

Membrane distillation (MD) is the thermally driven water separation process based on the vapor pressure difference across the membrane. In order to increase the water recovery of the conventional RO process, the additional MD-PRO pocess was suggested. In this study, the syntheric RO brine was used as a feed solution of the MD process. Due to the high salinity of the RO brine, the MD membrane could be fouled by the scalants. In order to mitigate the scaling on the MD membrane surface, the pre-treatment process using the column filled by natural zeolite was applied. The roughing filter was installed between the pre-treatment process and MD system in order to prevent possible particulate fouling by the debries of the natural zeolite. Moreover, in order to enhance the CEC of the natural zeolite, the NaCl soaking was conducted. The flux and electronic conductivity were monitored under given experimental conditions. And the membrane morphology and the chemical compositions were analyzed by using the SEM-EDX.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.525-534
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• 2022

In this study, we investigated the applicability and optimal operating strategy of a closed-loop pressure retarded membrane distillation (PRMD) for brackish water desalination. For effective operation with net power generation, high temperature of heat source over 90 ℃ and feed flow rate at 0.6 kg/s are recommended. At 3 g/L of feed concentration, the average permeate flux and net energy density showed 8.04 kg/m²/hr and 2.56 W/m², respectively. The average permeate flux and net energy density were almost constant in the range of feed concentration from 1 to 3 g/L. Compared to the case with seawater feed, the PRMD with brackish water feed showed higher average permeate flux and net energy density. Thus, PRMD application using brackish water feed can be more effective than that using seawater feed in terms of power generation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.333-337
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to develop a process technology to produce high hardness concentrated seawater removing chloride ions but containing useful minerals such as magnesium and calcium in the seawater desalination process. In order to make high hardness concentrated seawater, evaporation system is mostly used recently. Because evaporation system requires a large amount of energy consumption, in this study, it was aimed to produce high hardness concentrated seawater using membrane filtration requiring less energy. Nano filtration membranes were used for the experiments, and different types of high hardness concentrated seawater was produced depending on the membranes' specification, the number of times being concentrated, and pressure. As a result, at between 15bar and 20 bar in pressure, in between the second and the third times of concentration, the experiment result showed the best economic efficiency. By the experiment, production of high hardness concentrated seawater seemed to have a good economic feasibility.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.143-149
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• 2022

Membrane distillation (MD) has emerged as a sustainable desalination technology to solve the water and energy problems faced by the modern society. In particular, the surface wetting properties of the membrane have been recognized as a key parameter to determine the performance of the MD system. In this study, a novel surface modification technique was developed to induce a Janus-type hydrophilic/hydrophobic layer on the membrane surface. The hydrophilic layer was created on a porous PVDF membrane by vapor phase polymerization of the pyrrole monomer, forming a thin coating of polypyrrole on the membrane walls. A rigid polymeric coating layer was created without compromising the membrane porosity. The hydrophilic coating was then followed by the in-situ growth of siloxane nanoparticles, where the condensation of organosilane provided quick loading of hydrophobic layers on the membrane surface. The composite layers of dual coatings allowed systematic control of the surface wettability of porous membranes. By the virtue of the photothermal property of the hydrophilic polypyrrole layer, the desalination performance of the coated membrane was tested in a solar MD system. The wetting properties of the dual-layer were further evaluated in a direct-contact MD module, exploring the potential of the Janus membrane structure for effective and low-energy desalination.