• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.519-527
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• 2017

Membrane fouling is the main issue hindering the expansion of low pressure membrane processes for surface water treatment. Therefore, applying periodic hydraulic cleaning for fouling control should be well optimized. Better understanding of membrane fouling associated with periodic hydraulic cleaning would be useful to optimize membrane cleaning strategies. By comparing experimental permeability data with the classical Hermia blocking laws, this study aims at analyzing membrane fouling and understanding dominant fouling mechanisms occurring when filtering a synthetic surface water solution with a pressurized membrane process during six filtration cycles of 30 min each, separated with cyclic cleaning of 1 min by backwashing and forward flushing separately and combined. When applying single cleaning technique, membrane fouling during the first cycles was controlled by complete blocking mechanism while the last cycles were dominated by cake formation. Nevertheless, when combining cleaning technique better membrane regeneration was obtained and fouling was mainly due to cake formation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2016

Temperature correction trans-membrane pressure (TC-TMP) is frequently used as a fouling index in membrane water treatment plants. TC-TMP equation is derived based on an assumption that the total membrane resistance (i.e. the sum of the intrinsic membrane resistance and fouling resistance) is not affected by temperature. This work verified the validity of this assumption using microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF) membranes with and without fouling. The foulants used in the work were kaolin (inorganic) and humic acid (organic). The intrinsic resistances of MF and UF membranes remains at constant values regardless of temperature change. When the same amount of foulants were accumulated on the membrane, inorganic fouling resistance with kaolin was constant regardless of temperature change while organic fouling resistance with humic acid decreased at higher temperatures, which means that TC-TMP cannot be used as a fouling index when organic fouling occurs in a real field application. Since TC-TMP underestimates the amount of fouling at higher temperatures, more attention should be necessary in the operation of membrane water treatment plant in a hotter season like summer.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.489-495
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• 2011

Silt Density Index (SDI) has been used as a fouling index for reverse osmosis (RO) processes for decades. In order to decrease RO fouling, feed water should meet SDI standard, which was used to select a proper pretreatment system for RO processes. However, SDI is supposed to be sensitive only to particles larger than 0.45 ${\mu}m$ in terms of diameters while nanoparticles and dissolved organic matter can be potent foulants for RO processes. Our study started from the suspected performance of SDI as a RO fouling index. SDI data from pilot plants located world wide including South Korea were collected and analyzed. Suspended partcle concentration (i.e., turbidity and particle counts), and dissolved organic matter concentration (i.e., dissolved orgnaic carbon (DOC) concentration) data were also collected and compared to SDI values of same water samples. We found that SDI values were not only affected by suspended particle concentration but also by dissolved organic matter concentration. Therefore SDI can be used as a reasonable fouling index for RO feed water because the main foulants for RO processes are suspended particle and dissolved organic matter.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.379-387
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• 2021

In general, trans-membrane pressure (TMP), flux, filtration resistance are used as indicators to evaluate the degree of fouling in MBR. However, they have limitations in determining the level of EPS generation, which is known as an important factor of fouling. Therefore, a new evaluation method is required to monitor the amount of EPS generation. In this study, the applicability of capillary suction time (CST), which is used to measure the dewaterability of sludge, was evaluated as an indirect fouling evaluation index. Statistical analysis was performed to evaluate the effect of EPS on CST, and to determine whether EPS has high similarity with representative fouling evaluation indicators and CST, and quantitatively compared them. As a result, the correlation coefficient between CST and bEPS was 0.7988, which was higher than the correlation coefficient between filtration resistance and bEPS. Since bEPS is a major factor inducing fouling by affecting the formation of the cake layer, it was evaluated that CST, which has a high correlation with bEPS, is suitable to represent EPS. In addition, it was evaluated that the correlation coefficient between filtration resistance and CST was high as 0.7187, which could be used as a fouling evaluation index.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.13-22
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• 2015

The combined impact of Dissolved Organic Matter (DOM) fouling and inorganic ($CaSO_4,Ca_3(PO_4)_2$) scaling on the retention of TNT (2, 4, 6-Trinitrotoluene), RDX (Hexahydro-1, 3, 5-trinitro-1, 3, 5-triazine) and HMX (1, 3, 5, 7-Tetranitro-1, 3, 5, 7-tetrazocane) explosive contaminants by nano-filtration membrane were studied, since organic fouling and salt scaling are the major limitations for membrane filtration. Results reported here indicate that DOM fouling layer with a humic acid does not necessarily lead to an immediate loss of permeate flux but can result in a severe impact on the flux loss when both humic acid and inorganic scaltants were presented simultaneously. The $Ca_3(PO_4)_2$ mixed with humic acid showd most sever flux loss (42%) compared to that of only humic acid presence (8%). It could be a result that the scaling formation of the NF membrane was dominated by cake layer formation of DOM and it was along with pore blocking by the formation of crystals inside the porous active matrix of the NF membrane. In addition, these results indicated that the membrane selectivity of the explosives retention trended correlated with respect to increasing explosives size (listed by MW) based on greater steric interactions and followed the order (MW, g $mol^{-1}$; removal, %): HMX (296.15; 83%) ${\gg}$ RDX (222.12; 49%) ≋ TNT (227.13; 32%). Because the scaling and fouling layer could lead to a additional cake-enhanced concentration polarisation effect, the retention of explosives with the presence of humic acid in the feed solution and inorganic scaling formation on top of an organic fouling layer do not differ substantially retention from that of pure DI feed and NaCl solution.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.8
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• pp.444-451
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• 2016

Most research on membrane fouling models in the past are based on theoretical equations in lab-scale experiments. But these studies are barely suitable for applying on the full-scale spot where there is a sequential process such as filtration, backwash and drain. This study was conducted in submerged membrane system which being on operation auto sequentially and treating wastewater from G-water purification plant in Incheon. TMP had been designated as a fouling indicator in constant flux conditions. Total volume of inflow and SS concentration are independent variables as major operation parameters and time-series analysis and prediction of TMP were conducted. And similarity between simulated values and measured values was assessed. Final prediction model by using genetic algorithm was fully adaptable because simulated values expressed pulse-shape periodicity and increasing trend according to time at the same time. As results of twice validation, correlation coefficients between simulated and measured data were $r^2=0.721$, $r^2=0.928$, respectively. Although this study was conducted limited to data for summer season, the more amount of data, better reliability for prediction model can be obtained. If simulator for short range forecast can be developed and applied, TMP prediction technique will be a great help to energy efficient operation.