• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.77-94
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• 2015

Ultrafiltration membranes have several advantages over conventional drinking-water treatment. However, this technology presents major limitations, such as irreversible fouling and low removal of natural organic matter. Fouling depends heavily on the raw-water quality as well as on the operating conditions of the process, including flux, permeate recovery, pre-treatment, chemical cleaning, and backwashing. Starting with the premise that the optimisation of operating variables can improve membrane performance, different experiments were conducted in a pilot plant located in Granada (Spain). Several combinations of permeate and backwashing flow rates, backwashing frequencies, and aeration flow rates were tested for low-quality water coming from Genil River with the following results: the effluent quality did not depend on the combination of operating conditions chosen; and the membrane was effective for the removal of microorganisms, turbidity and suspended solids but the yields for the removal of dissolved organic carbon were extremely low. In addition, the threshold transmembrane pressure (-0.7 bar) was reached within a few hours and it was difficult to recover due to the low efficiency of the chemical cleanings. Moreover, greater transmembrane pressure due to fouling also increased the energy consumption, and it was not possible to lower it without compromising the permeate recovery. Finally, the intensification of aeration contributed positively to lengthening the operation times but again raised energy consumption. In light of these findings, the feasibility of ultrafiltration as a single treatment is questioned for low-quality influents.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.23-38
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• 2016

Batch adsorption of methyl orange (MO) from aqueous solution using three kinds of anion exchange membranes BI, BIII and DF-120B having different ion exchange capacities (IECs) and water uptakes ($W_R$) was investigated at room temperature. The FTIR spectra of anion exchange membranes was analysed before and after the adsorption of MO dye to investigate the intractions between dye molecules and anion exchange membranes. The effect of various parameters such as contact time, initial dye concentration and molarity of NaCl on the adsorption capacity was studied. The adsorption capacity found to be increased with contact time and initial dye concentration but decreased with ionic strength. The adsorption of MO on BI, BIII and DF-120B followed pseudo-first-order kinetics and the nonlinear forms of Freundlich and Langmuir were used to predict the isotherm parameters. This study demonstrates that anion exchange membranes could be used as useful adsorbents for removal of MO dye from wastewater.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.355-367
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• 2017

In India, the current operation of condenser cooling system & effluent disposal system in existing power plants aims to reduce drawal of seawater and to achieve Zero Liquid Discharge to meet the demands of statutory requirements, water scarcity and ecological system. Particularly in the Steam-Electric power plants, condenser cooling system adopts Once through cooling (OTC) system which requires more drawal of seawater and effluent disposal system adopts sea outfall system which discharges hot water into sea. This paper presents an overview of closed-loop technology for condenser cooling system and to achieve Zero Liquid Discharge plant in Steam-Electric power plants making it lesser drawal of seawater and complete elimination of hot water discharges into sea. The closed-loop technology for condenser cooling system reduces the drawal of seawater by 92% and Zero Liquid Discharge plant eliminates the hot water discharges into sea by 100%. Further, the proposed modification generates revenue out of selling potable water and ZLD free flowing solids at INR 81,97,20,000 per annum (considering INR 60/Cu.m, 330 days/year and 90% availability) and INR 23,760 per annum (considering INR 100/Ton, 330 days/year and 90% availability) respectively. This proposed modification costs INR 870,00,00,000 with payback period of less than 11 years. The conventional technology can be replaced with this proposed technique in the existing and upcoming power plants.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.311-321
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• 2017

Hydrophilic and high modulus PPTA molecules were incorporated into PVDF matrix via the in situ polymerization of PPD and TPC in PVDF solution. PPTA/PVDF/NWF blend membrane was prepared through the immersion precipitation phase inversion method and nonwoven coating technique. The membrane integrated technology including PPTA/PVDF/NWF blend membrane and reverse osmosis (RO) membrane was employed to treat the polyester/viscose spunlace nonwoven process wastewater. During the consecutive running of six months, the effects of membrane integrated technology on the COD, ammonia nitrogen, suspended substance and pH value of water were studied. The results showed that the removal rate of COD, ammonia nitrogen and suspended substance filtered by PPTA/PVDF blend membrane was kept above 90%. The pH value of the permeate water was about 7.1 and the relative water flux of blend membrane remained above 90%. After the deep treatment of RO membrane, the permeate water quality can meet the water circulation requirement of spunlace process.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.95-104
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• 2018

Copper pollution around the world has caused serious public health problems recently. The heavy metal adsorption on traditional membranes from wastewater is limited by material properties. Different adsorptive materials are embedded in the membrane matrix and act as the adsorbent for the heavy metal. The carbonized leaf powder has been proven as an effective adsorbent material in removing aqueous Cu(II) because of its relative high specific surface area and inherent beneficial groups such as amine, carboxyl and phosphate after carbonization process. Factors affecting the adsorption of Cu(II) include: adsorbent dosage, initial Cu(II) concentration, solution pH, temperature and duration. The kinetics data fit well with the pseudo-first order kinetics and the pseudo-second order kinetics model. The thermodynamic behavior reveals the endothermic and spontaneous nature of the adsorption. The adsorption isotherm curve fits Sips model well, and the adsorption capacity was determined at 61.77 mg/g. Based on D-R model, the adsorption was predominated by the form of physical adsorption under lower temperatures, while the increased temperature motivated the form of chemical adsorption such as ion-exchange reaction. According to the analysis towards the mechanism, the chemical adsorption process occurs mainly among amine, carbonate, phosphate and copper ions or other surface adsorption. This hypothesis is confirmed by FT-IR test and XRD spectra as well as the predicted parameters calculated based on D-R model.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.69-77
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• 2018

The use of membrane as an innovative technology for water treatment process has now widely been accepted and adopted to replace the conventional water treatment process in increasing fresh water production for various domestic and industrial purposes. In this study, ultrafiltration (UF) membranes with different formulation were fabricated via phase inversion method. The membranes were fabricated by varying the polymer concentration (16 wt%, 18 wt%, 20 wt%, and 21 wt%). A series of tests, such as field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), pore size and porosity, contact angle, and zeta potential were performed to characterize the membranes. The membrane performance in terms of permeation flux and rejection were evaluated using a laboratory bench-scale test unit with mine water, lake water and tube well as model feed solution. Long hour filtration study of the membranes provides the information on its fouling property. Few pore blocking mechanism models were proposed to examine the behaviour of flux reduction and to estimate the fouling parameters based on different degree of fouling. 21 wt% PVDF membrane with smaller membrane pore size showed an excellent performance for surface water treatment in which the treated water complied with NWQS class II standard.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.297-316
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• 2010

Membrane fouling is one of the major operational concerns of membrane processes which results in loss of productivity. This paper investigates the ultrafiltration (UF) results of synthetic oil-in-water (o/w) emulsion using flat sheets of polysulfone (PSf) membrane synthesized with four different compositions. The aim is to identify the mechanisms responsible for the observed permeate flux reduction with time for different PSf membranes. The experiments were carried out at four transmembrane pressures i.e., 68.9 kPa, 103.4 kPa, 137.9 kPa and 172.4 kPa. Three initial oil concentrations i.e., 75 $mgL^{-1}$, 100 $mgL^{-1}$ and 200 $mgL^{-1}$ were considered. The resistance-in-series (RIS) model was applied to interpret the data and on that basis, the individual resistances were evaluated. The significances of these resistances were studied in relation to parameters, namely, transmembrane pressure and initial oil concentration. The total resistance to permeate flow is found to increase with increase in both transmembrane pressure and initial oil concentration while for higher oil concentration, resistance due to concentration polarization is found to be the prevailing resistance. The applicability of the constant pressure filtration models to the experimental data was also tested to explain the blocking process. The study shows that intermediate pore blocking is the dominant mechanism at the initial period of UF while in the later period, the fouling process is found to approach cake filtration like mechanism. However, the duration of pore blocking mechanism is different for different membranes depending on their morphological and permeation properties.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.283-296
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• 2010

During the disinfection of potable water, humic substances present in the solution react with chlorine to form potential carcinogenic compounds. This study evaluates the feasibility of using a submerged membrane photocatalysis reactor (SMPR) process for treatment of humic substances through the characterization of both organic removal efficiency and membrane hydraulic performance. A simple SMPR was operated and led to the removal of up to 83% of the polluting humic matters. Temporal rates of organic removal and membrane fouling were found to decrease with filtration time. Using tighter membrane in the hybrid process resulted in not only higher organic removal, but also more significant membrane fouling. Under the experimental conditions tested, optimum $TiO_2$ concentration for humic removal was found to be 0.6 g/L, and increasing initial pollutant concentration expectedly resulted in a more substantial membrane fouling. The importance of the influent nature and pollutant characteristics in this type of treatment was also assessed as various water sources were tested (model humic acid solution vs. local water containing natural organic matters). Results from this study revealed the promising nature of the SMPR process as an alternative technique for organic removal in the existing water treatment system.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.39-44
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• 2015

The VHTR (Very High Temperature gas-cooled nuclear Reactor) has been considered as a major heat source and the most safe generation IV type reactor for mass hydrogen production to prepare for the hydrogen economy era. The VHTR satisfies goals for the GIF (Generation IV International Forum) policy such as sustainablility, economics, reliability and proliferation resistance and physical protection, and safety. As a part of a VHTR economic analysis, we have studied the VHTR construction cost and operation and maintenance cost. However, it is somewhat difficult to expect the ripple effect on the whole industry due to the lack of information about Inter-industries relationship. In many case, the ripple effect are based on experts' knowledge or uncertain qualitative assumptions. As a result, we propose quantitative analysis techniques for ripple effects such as the production inducement effect, added value inducement effect, and employment inducement effect for VHTR 600MWt${\times}$4 modules construction and operation ripple effect based on NOAK (Nth Of A Kind). Because inducement effect values have been published annually, we predict inducement effect's relation function and estimated values including production inducement effect value, added value inducement effect value, and employment inducement effect value using time series and estimated values are verified with published inducement effects' value. This paper presents a new method for the ripple effect and preliminary ripple effect consequence using a time series analysis and inter-industry table. This ripple effect analysis techniques can be applied to effect expectation analysis as well as other type reactor's ripple effect analysis including VHTR for process heat.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.113-123
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• 2017

This study investigated effects of physical and chemical cleaning methods on the initial flux recovery of fouled membrane in membrane distillation process. A laboratory scale direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) experiment was performed to treat digested livestock wastewater with 3.89 mg/L suspended solids, 874.7 mg/L COD, 543.7 mg/L nitrogen, 15.6 mg/L total phosphorus, and pH of 8.6. A hydrophobic PVDF membrane with an average pore size of $0.22{\mu}m$ and a porosity of 75 % was installed inside a direct contact type membrane distillation module. The temperature difference between feed and permeate side was maintained at $40^{\circ}C$ with the feed and permeate stream velocity of 0.18 m/s. The results showed that the permeate flux decreased from $22.1L{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}hr^{-1}$ to $19.0L{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}hr^{-1}$ after 75 hours of distillation. The fouled membrane was cleaned first by physical flushing and consecutively by chemicals with NaOCl and citric acid. After the physical cleaning the flux was recovered to 92 % as compared with the initial clean water flux of the virgin membrane. Then 94 % of the flux was recovered after cleaning by 2,000 ppm NaOCl for 90 minutes and finally 97 % of flux recovered after 3 % citric acid for 90 minutes. SEM-EDS and FT-IR analysis results presented that the foulants on the membrane surface were removed effectively after each cleaning step. The contact angle measurement showed that the hydrophobicity of the membrane surface was also restored gradually after each cleaning step to reach nearly the same hydrophobicity level as the virgin membrane.