• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.77-87
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• 2018

In this study, the effects of operating conditions on the formation of reversible and irreversible fouling were investigated in the filtration using ceramic membrane for water treatment process. The effect of coagulation pretreatment on fouling formation was also evaluated by comparing the performance of membrane filtration both with and without addition of coagulant. A resistance-in-series-model was applied for the analysis of membrane fouling. Total resistance (RT) and internal fouling resistance (Rf) increased in the membrane filtration process without coagulation as membrane flux and feed water concentrations increased. Internal fouling resistance, which was not recovered by physical cleaning, was more than 70% of the total resistance at the range of the membrane flux more than $5m^3/m^2{\cdot}day$. In the combined process with coagulation, the cake layer resistance (Rc) increased to about 30-80% of total resistance. As the cake layer formed by coagulation floc was easily removed by physical cleaning, the recovery rate by physical cleaning was 54~90%. It was confirmed from the results that the combined process was more efficient to recover the filtration performance by physical cleaning due to higher formation ratio of reversible fouling, resulted in the mitigation of the frequency of chemical cleaning.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.143-156
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• 2018

In this review article, hybrid water/wastewater treatment processes of membrane and photocatalyst were summarized from papers published in various journals. It included (1) membrane photoreactor (MPR), (2) fouling control of a membrane coupled photocatalytic process, (3) photocatalytic membrane reactors for degradation of organic pollutants, (4) integration of photocatalysis with membrane processes for purification of water, (5) hybrid photocatalysis and ceramic membrane filtration process for humic acid degradation, (6) effect of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles on fouling mitigation of ultrafiltration membranes for activated sludge filtration, (7) hybrid photocatalysis/submerged microfiltration membrane system for drinking water treatment, (8) purification of bilge water by hybrid ultrafiltration and photocatalytic processes, and (9) Hybrid water treatment process of membrane and photocatalyst-coated polypropylene bead.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.203-211
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• 2009

In this study, we used the hybrid module that was composed of granular activated carbons (GAC) packing between module inside and outside of tubular ceramic microfiltration membrane for advanced drinking water treatment. Instead of natural organic matters (NOM) and fine inorganic particles in natural water source, modified solution was prepared with humic acid and kaolin. $N_2$-back-flushing of 10 sec was performed per every period of 10 min to minimize membrane fouling and to improve permeate flux (J). As a result, resistance of membrane fouling ($R_f$) decreased and J increased as concentration of humic acid changed from 10 mg/L to 2 mg/L step by step, and finally the highest total permeate volume ($V_T$) could be obtained at 2 mg/L. Then, treatment efficiencies of turbidity and $UV_{254}$ absorbance were excellent above 99.36% and 97.19%, respectively, but that of $UV_{254}$ absorbance for only microfiltration without GAC at 10 mg/L of humic acid was decreased a little as 90.84%.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.144-150
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• 2013

Hybrid ceramic membrane (HCM) processes that combined ozonation with a ceramic membrane (CM) or a reactive ceramic membrane (RM), an iron oxide nanoparticles (IONs) incorporated-CM were investigated for membrane fouling control. Alumina disc type microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes doped with IONs by sintering method were tested under varying mass fraction of IONs. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images showed that IONs were well-doped on the CM surface and doped IONs were approximately 50 nm in size. Change in the pure water permeability of RM was negligible compared to that of CM. These results indicate that IONs incorporation onto CM had little effect on CM performance in terms of the flux. Natural organic matter (NOM) fouling and fouling recovery patterns during HCM processes confirmed that the RM-ozonation process enhanced the destruction of NOM and reduced the extent of fouling more than the CM-ozonation process by hydroxyl radical formation in the presence of IONs on RM. In addition, analyses of NOM in the feed water and the permeate showed that the efficiency of membrane fouling control results from the NOM degradation during HCM processes; leading to removal and transformation of relatively high contents of aromatic, high molecular weight and hydrophobic NOM fractions.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.271-279
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• 2023

Fouling is an inevitable problem in membrane water treatment plant. It can be measured by trans-membrane pressure (TMP) in the constant flux operation, and chemical cleaning is carried out when TMP reaches a critical value. An early fouilng alarm is defined as warning the critical TMP value appearance in advance. The alarming method was developed using one of machine learning algorithms, decision tree, and applied to a ceramic microfiltration (MF) pilot plant. First, the decision tree model that classifies the normal/abnormal state of the filtration cycle of the ceramic MF pilot plant was developed and it was then used to make the early fouling alarm method. The accuracy of the classification model was up to 96.2% and the time for the early warning was when abnormal cycles occurred three times in a row. The early fouling alram can expect reaching a limit TMP in advance (e.g., 15-174 hours). By adopting TMP increasing rate and backwash efficiency as machine learning variables, the model accuracy and the reliability of the early fouling alarm method were increased, respectively.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.159-169
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• 2013

The effect of humic acid (HA), and the roles of microfiltration (MF), PES (polyethersulfone) beads adsorption, and photo-oxidation were investigated in hybrid process of ceramic MF and PES beads loaded with titanium dioxide ($TiO_2$) photocatalyst for advanced drinking water treatment. The results of water and nitrogen back-flushing were compared in viewpoints of membrane fouling resistance ($R_f$), permeate flux (J), and total permeate volume ($V_T$). Because membrane fouling increased dramatically as increasing HA, Rf increased and J decreased, and finally $V_T$ was the highest at 2 mg/L HA. Average turbidity treatment efficiencies were almost same independent of HA concentration. Average organic matter treatment efficiency was the minimum 71.4% at 10 mg/L HA in water back-flushing, but those were almost constant in nitrogen back-flushing. The hybrid process of MF, PES beads, and UV (MF + $TiO_2$ + UV) have the lowest $R_f$, and the highest J and $V_T$ in both water and nitrogen back-flushing. The turbidity and organic matter treatment efficiencies were the maximum at MF + $TiO_2$ + UV independent of water and nitrogen back-flushing, and decreased sequently as simplifying the process to MF. However, adsorption performed the more important role than photo-oxidation in water back-flushing, and photo- oxidation was the more than adsorption in nitrogen back-flushing.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.113-119
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• 2010

Biodiesel was produced from Canola, soybean and Jatropha oils combined methanol using continuously recycled membrane reactor. The membrane served to react and separate the unreacted oil from the product stream, producing high-purity fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). Two ceramic tubular membranes having different nominal pore sizes of 0.2 and 0.5 ${\mu}m$ were used. Permeate was observed at 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 bar with a given flow rate, respectively. The permeate flux for 0.2 ${\mu}m$ membrane at 0.5 bar and 400 mL/min flow rate was 15 L/$m^2{\cdot}hr$. Also FAME content in permeate was the highest at 0.5 bar, and decreased with increasing operating pressure.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.243-250
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• 2012

The effect of water back-flushing period (filtration time, FT) was investigated in hybrid process of alumina microfiltration and photocatalyst for advanced drinking water treatment in this study, and compared with the previous studies with carbon microfiltration or alumina ultrafiltration membranes. The FT was changed in the range of 2~10 min with fixed 10 sec of BT. Then, the FT effects on resistance of membrane fouling ($R_f$), permeate flux (J) and total permeate volume ($V_T$) were observed during total filtration time of 180 min. As decreasing FT, $R_f$ decreased and J increased as decreasing FT, which was same with the previous results with carbon microfiltration or alumina ultrafiltration membranes. The treatment efficiency of turbidity was high beyond 98.1%, and the effect of FT was not shown on treatment efficiency of turbidity, which was same with the previous result of carbon microfiltration. The treatment efficiency of organic matters was the highest value of 89.6 % at FT 8 min, which was a little higher than those of the previous results, and the effect of FT was not shown on treatment efficiency of organic matters.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.329-338
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• 2004

In this study the discharged wastewater from paper manufacturing plant was filtrated by 4 kinds of tubular ceramic microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes (carbon material) with periodic water-back-flushing, and we tried to find the optimum back-flushing time (BT). As results of water-BT effect for each ceramic membrane, the longer BT was more effective for a membrane having the larger pore size. And we could acquire the most volume of total permeate and the highest recovery efficiency of purified water, Then, the results of permeate flux vs. initial permeate flux during 180 min's operation showed that the longer BT was more effective for longer filtration time (FT) to obtain the higher permeate flux because membrane fouling proceeded deeply at long FT condition. And the optimum BT that founded from the trends of membrane fouling resistances almost accorded with the optimum BT from the trends of permeate flux, too.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.136-144
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• 2009

In this study, sodium dedocyl sulfate (SDS), which was anionic surfactant, was added for forming micelles to remove ferrous ions that could be contained with a small amount in industrial water. Then aggregates were formed by adsorption or binding of ferrous ions on the surface of micelles, and then rejected by ceramic membranes to remove ferrous ions. Ferrous concentration was fixed at 1mM and SDS was changed as $0{\sim}10mM$ to investigate the effect of the anionic surfactant. As a result, rejection rate of ferrous was the highest to 88.97% at 6mM. And we used ELS (Electrophoretic Light Scattering Spectrometer) to investigate particle size distribution of micellar aggregates depending on SDS concentration. Then distribution of large aggregates was the highest at 6mM. And we investigated effects of $N_2$-back-flushing time (BT) during periodic $N_2$-back-flushing on ceramic membranes. Finally optimal $N_2$-BT for NCMT-723l (pore size $0.10{\mu}m$) membrane was 20 sec.