• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.37 no.11
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• pp.649-655
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• 2015

As a novel water treatment membrane, concept of ceramic-based graphene membrane (CbGM) was suggested, and its mass transport behavior was investigated. The selectivity of CbGM was given by graphene material which is consisting of active layer, only transmitting water, but rejecting salts. Filtration-assisted assembly methods was employed as a facile method to fabricate CbGM. Surface morphology and characteristics of CbGM were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and contact angle. In addition, three different kinds of solutes (i.e., NaCl, $MgCl_2$, $Na_2SO_4$) were tested in batch forward osmosis system to confirm the mass transport behavior. Through surface morphology analysis and mass transport behavior, it was revealed that interlocking between graphene layers is very important, rather than thickness of laminated graphene layers, in terms of selectivity to CbGM. All the anions in each solute showed faster transport than those of cations. In addition, solutes which have high ion valence charge ratio of anion to cation ($Z^-/Z^+$) was easier to be passed through CbGM. It indirectly implied that the surface charge of CbGM appear to be positive. In addition, It showed that surface charge of CbGM has a great role on mass transport, in particular, transport of matter having charges, generally ions.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.149-157
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• 2023

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have shown promise in various applications, including molecular separation, dye separation, gas separation, filtration, and desalination. Integrating COFs into membranes enhances permeability, selectivity, and stability, improving separation processes. Combining COFs with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) creates nanocomposite membranes with high permeability and stability, ideal for dye separation. Incorporating COFs into polyamide (PA) membranes improves permeability and selectivity through a synthetic interfacial strategy. Three-dimensional COF fillers in mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs) enhance CO₂/CH₄ separation, making them suitable for biogas upgrading. All-nanoporous composite (ANC) membranes, which combine COFs and metal-organic framework (MOF) membranes, overcome permeance-selectivity trade-offs, significantly improving gas permeance. Computational simulations using hypothetical COFs (hypoCOFs) demonstrate superior CO₂ selectivity and working capacity relevant for CO₂ separation and H₂ purification. COFs integrated into thin-film composite (TFC) and polysulfonamide (PSA) membranes enhance rejection performance for organic contaminants, salt contaminants, and heavy metal ions, improving separation capabilities. TpPa-SO₃H/PAN covalent organic framework membranes (COFMs) exhibited superior desalination performance compared to traditional polyamide membranes by utilizing charged groups to enable efficient desalination through electrostatic repulsion, suggesting their potential for ionic and molecular separations. These findings highlight COFs' potential in membrane technology for enhanced separation processes by improving permeability, selectivity, and stability. In this review, COF applied for the separation process is discussed.

• 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.35 no.6
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• pp.437-454
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• 2021

This study investgates Korean water technology through the water market perspective and analyses its competitiveness. Based on the water technology classification, water technology competitiveness is analysed through the technological influence index and market dominance index which are based on the extracted water technology patents from the US, Europe, Korea, and Japan for the last decade. As a result, the Korean water technology patents were lack in influence and competitiveness in global market considering the large volume of patents. There are two most tech-influential industries in Korea; manufacturing industry consisting pipes, sterilization, disinfection, and advanced water purification equipment, and construction industry including seawater desalination and water resource development. Due to the domestic usage of the patents, the Korean water technology patents scored low in global market PFS(Patent Family Size) index compared to their CPP(Cites Per Patent) index. The study is meaningful in a way that the analysis on Korean water technology competitiveness using water technology classification system and patent analysis was conducted based on the perspective of the global water market.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2010

Membrane distillation process was used for purification of pre-treated natural water (tap water). The rejection of inorganic and organic compounds in this process was investigated. The obtained rejection of inorganic solutes was closed to 100%, but the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) diffused through the membrane together with water vapour. The content of trihalomethanes (THMs) in the obtained distillate was two-three fold higher than that in the feed, therefore, the rejection of the total organic compounds present in the tap water was reduced to a level of 98%. The intensive membranes scaling was observed during the water separation. The morphology and composition of the fouling layer was studied using scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersion spectrometry. The influence of thermal water pre-treatment performed in a heat exchanger followed by filtration on the MD process effectiveness was evaluated. This procedure caused that significantly smaller amounts of $CaCO_3$ crystallites were deposited on the membrane surface, and a high permeate flux was maintained over a period of 160 h.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.869-876
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• 2008

A thermocompressor is the equipment which compresses a vapor to a desired discharge pressure. Since it was first used as the evacuation pump for a surface condenser, it has been widely adopted for energy saving systems due to its high working confidence. In the present study, the geometrical analysis of the shape between the jet nozzle and the diffuser inlet, the drag force was calculated by means of the integrated equation of motion and the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) package called FLUENT. The computer simulations were performed to investigate the effects by the various suction flow rates, the distance from jet nozzle outlet to the diffuser inlet and the dimensions of the diffuser inlet section through the iterative calculation. In addition, the results from the CFD analysis on the thermocompressor and the experiments were compared for the verification of the CFD results. In the case of a jet nozzle, the results from the CFD analysis showed a good agreement with the experimental results. Furthermore, in this study, a special attention was paid on the performance of the thermocompressor by varying the diffuser convergence angle of $0.0^{\circ}$, $0.5^{\circ}$, $1.0^{\circ}$, $2.0^{\circ}$, $3.5^{\circ}$ and $4.5^{\circ}$. With the increase of the diffuser convergence angle. the suction capacity was improved up to the degree of $1.0^{\circ}$ while it was decreased over the degree of $1.0^{\circ}$.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.303-310
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• 2017

Pressure retarded osmosis(PRO) has attracted much attention as potential technology to reduce the overall energy consumption for reverse osmosis(RO) desalination. The RO/PRO hybrid process is considered as the most logical next step for future desalination. The PRO process aims to harness the osmotic energy difference of two aqueous solutions separated by a semipermeable membrane. By using the concentrated water(RO brine) discharged from existing RO plants, the PRO process can effectively exploit a greater salinity gradient to reduce the energy cost of processing concentrated water. However, in order to use RO brine as the draw solution, PRO membrane must have high water flux and enough mechanical strength to withstand the high operational pressure. This study investigates the development of a thin film composite PRO membrane and spiral wound module for high power density. Also, the influence of membrane backing layer on the overall power density was studied using the characteristic factors of PRO membranes. Finally, the performance test of an 8-inch spiral wound module was carried out under various operating conditions(i.e. hydraulic pressure, flow rate, temperature). As the flow rate and temperature increased under the same hydraulic pressure, the PRO performance increased due to the growth of water permeability coefficient and osmotic pressure. For a high performance PRO system, in order to optimize the operating conditions, it is highly recommended that the flow pressure be minimized while the flow rate is maintained at a high level.

• Carbon letters
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.38-44
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• 2014

This paper reports the effect of adding reduced graphene oxide (RGO) as a conductive material to the composition of an electrode for capacitive deionization (CDI), a process to remove salt from water using ionic adsorption and desorption driven by external applied voltage. RGO can be synthesized in an inexpensive way by the reduction and exfoliation of GO, and removing the oxygen-containing groups and recovering a conjugated structure. GO powder can be obtained from the modification of Hummers method and reduced into RGO using a thermal method. The physical and electrochemical characteristics of RGO material were evaluated and its desalination performance was tested with a CDI unit cell with a potentiostat and conductivity meter, by varying the applied voltage and feed rate of the salt solution. The performance of RGO was compared to graphite as a conductive material in a CDI electrode. The result showed RGO can increase the capacitance, reduce the equivalent series resistance, and improve the electrosorption capacity of CDI electrode.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.193-206
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• 2010

Organic fouling and biofouling pose a significant challenge to the membrane filtration process. Photocatalysis-membrane hybrid system is a novel idea for reducing these membranes fouling however, when $TiO_2 photocatalyst nanoparticles are used in suspension, catalyst recovery is not only imposes an extra step on the process but also significantly contributes to increased membrane resistance and reduced permeate flux. In this study, $TiO_2$ photocatalyst has been immobilized by coating on the microfiltration (MF) membrane surface to minimize organic and microbial fouling. Nano-sized $TiO_2$ was first synthesized by a sol-gel method. The synthesized $TiO_2$ was coated on a Poly Vinyl Difluoride (PVDF) membrane (MF) surface using spray coating and dip coating techniques to obtain hybrid functional composite membrane. The characteristics of the synthesized photocatalyst and a functional composite membrane were studied using numerous instruments in terms of physical, chemical and electrical properties. In comparison to the clean PVDF membrane, the $TiO_2$ coated MF membrane was found more effective in removing methylene blue (20%) and E-coli (99%).

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.697-703
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• 2011

Capacitive deionization(CDI) is an ion removal technology that employs the basic electrochemical principle of absorbing ions in high surface area electrode. CDI technology reduce power consumption because it operates at lower electrode potential(about 1~2 V). Also, it is an environmentally friendly technology because no acid, base, or salts are required to generate the surface. In this study, we searched the patents and papers to investigate the trend of CDI technologies. Database was collected from WIPS and Scopus site and was investigated according to electrode, module and application technology of CDI. The technology trend of CDI was analyzed based on patent application year, countries, main applications and technologies.