• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.413-420
• /
• 2019

Pretreatment system of desalination process using seawater reverse osmosis(SWRO) membrane is the most critical step in order to prevent membrane fouling. One of the methods is coagulation-UF membrane process. Coagulation-UF membrane systems have been shown to be very efficient in removing turbidity and non-soluble and colloidal organics contained in the source water for SWRO pretreatment. Ferric salt coagulants are commonly applied in coagulation-UF process for pretreatment of SWRO process. But aluminum salts have not been applied in coagulation-UF pretreatment of SWRO process due to the SWRO membrane fouling by residual aluminum. This study was carried out to see the effect of residual matal salt on SWRO membrane followed by coagulation-UF pretreatment process. Experimental results showed that increased residual aluminum salts by coagulation-UF pretreatment process by using alum lead to the decreased SWRO membrane salt rejection and flux. As the salt rejection and flux of SWRO membrane decreased, the concentration of silica and residual aluminum decreased. However, when adjusting coagulation pH for coagulation-UF pretreatment process, the residual aluminum salt concentration was decreased and SWRO membrane flux was increased.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.19 no.5
• /
• pp.605-612
• /
• 2005

The objective of this study was to evaluate the factors affecting the optimization of coagulation hybrid UF membrane processes for the reuse of secondary effluent from sewage treatment plant. The experimental results obtained from the UF membrane process showed that organic colloids in the size range of $0.2{\mu}m{\sim}1.0{\mu}m$ caused the most substantial influence on the fouling of UF membrane. When using a coagulation pretreatment to UF membrane, alum dosage of 50mg/L resulted in the least reduction in membrane permeate flux. Also, for the rapid mixing process, in-line mixer type was more efficient for organic removal than back mixer type. Therefore, it may be concluded that coagulation-UF hybrid membrane process comparing to UF alone process showed not only higher removal efficiency of organic matter, but also substantial improvement of permeate flux of UF membrane.

• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.159-163
• /
• 2018

The feasibility of applying coagulation-integrated microfiltration (MF) as a pretreatment for an ultrafiltration (UF) feed in oily wastewater treatment was investigated. The effects of different coagulants on oil removal rates from wastewater were studied. The maximum oil removal rate of 82% was obtained after coagulation with 130 mg/L of polyaluminium chloride (PAC). UF flux reached $95L/(m^2{\cdot}h)$ with coagulation-integrated MF as pretreatment. This value was 2.5 times higher than that flux obtained without pretreatment. The value of UF flux increased as the transmembrane pressure (TMP) and cross-flow velocity (CFV) of the UF module increased. UF flux gradually increased when TMP and CFV exceeded 0.4 MPa and 3 m/s, respectively, because of concentration polarization and membrane fouling stabilization. Chemical oxygen demand reduction and oil removal rate reached 95.2% and 98.5%, respectively, during integrated membrane processing with a PAC concentration of 130 mg/L, TMP of 0.4 MPa, and CFV of 3 m/s for UF. In addition, sequentially cleaning the fouling membrane with NaOH and $HNO_3$ aqueous solutions caused UF flux to recover to 90%. These encouraging results suggested that the hybrid integrated membrane process-based coagulation and MF + UF are effective approaches for oily wastewater treatment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.30 no.11
• /
• pp.1139-1145
• /
• 2008

The objectives of this research are to investigate the mechanism of coagulation affecting UF and find out the optimum conditions of the combined of coagulation with UF membrane filtration for NOM removal. During the mixing period, substantial changes in particle size distribution occurred under rapid and slow mixing condition due to the simultaneous formation of microflocs and NOM precipitates. Therefore, combined pretreatment using coagulation (both rapid mixing and slow mixing) improved dissolved removal efficiency. Also, for combined coagulation to membrane process, flux reduction rate showed lower than only UF process. The rate of flux decline for the hydrophobic membrane was considerably greater than for the hydrophilic membrane. Applying coagulation process before membrane filtration showed not only reducing membrane fouling, but also improving the removal of dissolved organic materials that might otherwise not be removed by the membrane.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.27 no.8
• /
• pp.799-806
• /
• 2005

Applying coagulation process before membrane filtration showed not only reducing membrane fouling, but also improving the removal of dissolved organic materials that might otherwise not be removed by the membrane alone. Also, slow mixing didn't affect the reduction of membrane fouling, and rapid mixing using an in-line static mixer was more effective than using backmixer. In addition, only 11 percent of dissolved organic matter in raw water was the primary cause of fouling. Furthermore, tile primary foulant of UF membrane was hydrophobic substance, which can easily be removed by coagulation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.285-292
• /
• 2021

Osmotic power is to produce electric power by using the chemical potential of two flows with the difference of salinity. Water permeates through a semipermeable membrane from a low concentration feed solution to a high concentration draw solution due to osmotic pressure. In a pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) process, river water and wastewater are commonly used as low salinity feed solution, whereas seawater and brine from the SWRO plant are employed as draw solution. During the PRO process using wastewater effluent as feed solution, PRO membrane fouling is usually caused by the convective or diffusive transport of PRO which is the most critical step of PRO membrane in order to prevent membrane fouling. The main objective of this study is to assess the PRO membrane fouling reduction by pretreatment to remove organic matter using coagulation-UF membrane process. The experimental results obtained from the pretreatment test showed that the optimum ferric chloride and PAC dosage for removal of organic matter applied for the coagulation and adsorption process was 50 mg/L as FeCl₃ (optimum pH 5.5). Coagulation-UF pretreatment process was higher removal efficiency of organic matter, as also resulting in the substantial improvement of water flux of PRO membrane.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.35 no.7
• /
• pp.495-502
• /
• 2013

This work was performed to investigate proper condition of coagulation treatment as UF process pretreatment that consider UF permeate flux and residual Al concentration. The coagulant used an alum as $Al_2(SO_4)_3{\cdot}16H_2O$ and PACl (r = 1.5) made this study. The experiment was tested in adjusting conditions such as alum dose, flocculation time and coagulation pH of seawater. Consequently, higher coagulant dose lead to elevation of UF permeate flux while residual aluminium also increased in condition of pH 8.0. The most suitable condition which has a good permeate flux and low residual aluminium, in this works, was coagulant dose of 0.7 mg/L (as Al, alum) and 1.2 mg/L (as Al, PACl) and coagulation pH 6.5. In addition, applying the flocculation time with 1.2 mg/L of PACI reduced. The flocculation time reduced UF permeate flux in using alum.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.38-46
• /
• 2005

In this research, we tried to combine the coagulation/sedimentation process as pre-treatment with UF membrane filtration to reduce the membrane fouling and to improve the permeate water quality. We used the Jet Mixed Separator (JMS) as coagulation/sedimentation process. We observed that the HPC and E.Coli can't be removed through the direct UF memebrane filtation of surface water. The removal efficiency of dissolved organic substances, indicated by E260 and DOC, was 40% and 15%, respectively. However, the removal efficiency of it increased two time as a result of combination of JMS process as coagulation/sedimentation pre-treatment. This was resulted from the formation of high molecular humic micro-floc through JMS process. The accumulation amount of irreversible cake layer which was not removed by backwashing was less than direct UF membrane filtration of surface water. Moreover, the loading rate of fouling induced substances, such as humic substances and suspended substances, on membrane surface decreased drastically through JMS process. As a result, the accumulation amount of irreversible cake on membrane surface was decreased.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.27 no.7
• /
• pp.753-761
• /
• 2005

In this study, pretreatment of organic matters with $MIEX^{(R)}$ was evaluated using bench-scale experimental procedures on four organic matters to determine its effect on subsequent UF membrane filtration. For comparison, coagulation process was also used as a pretreatment of UF membrane filtration. Moreover, the membrane fouling potential was identified using different fractions and molecular weights of organic matters. From the removal property of MW organic matters by coagulation process for the sample water NOM and AOM, the removal efficiency of high MW organic matters were much higher than those of low MW organic matters. It was shown that the removal efficiency of high MW organic matter more than 10 kDa was lower than that of low MW organic matter for $MIEX^{(R)}$ process. For the change of permeate flux by the pretreatment process, $MIEX^{(R)}$+UF process showed high removal efficiency of organic matter as compared with coagulation-UF processes, but high reduction rate of permeate flux was presented through the reduction of removal efficiency of high MW organic matter. From sequential filtration test results in order to examine the effect of MW of organic matter on membrane fouling, it was found that the membrane foulant was occurred by high MW organic matter, and the DOC of organic matter less than 0.5 mg/L was working as the membrane foulant. In the case of sample water composed of low MW organic matter less than 10 kDa, since the low MW organic matter less than 10 kDa has high removal efficiency by $MIEX^{(R)}$, low reduction rate of permeate flux is obtained as compared with coagulation-UF processes. In summary, it is required to conduct the research on physical/chemical characteristic of original water before pretreatment process of membrane process is selected, and a pertinent pre-treatment process should be employed based on the physical/chemical characteristic of original water.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.46 no.3
• /
• pp.639-645
• /
• 2008

The objectives of this research are to (1) observe changes in particle size distribution due to formation of microflocs during coagulation process (2) identify the membrane fouling potential on cross flow system (3) investigate the mechanism of membrane fouling. The rate of flux decline for the hydrophobic membrane was significantly greater than for the hydrophilic membrane, regardless of pretreatment conditions. The pretreatment of the raw water significantly reduced the fouling of the UF membrane. Also, the rate of flux decline for the hydrophobic membrane was considerably greater than for the hydrophilic membrane. Applying coagulation process before membrane filtration showed not only reducing membrane fouling, but also improving the removal of dissolved organic materials that might otherwise not be removed by the membrane. That is, during the mixing period, substantial changes in particle size distribution occurred under rapid and slow mixing condition due to the simultaneous formation of microflocs and NOM precipitates. Therefore, combined pretreatment using coagulation not only improved dissolved organics removal efficiency but also flux recovery efficiency.