• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.105-114
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• 2018

Membrane fouling in EC-MBR (Electro-Coagulation aided Membrane Bio-Reactor) processes was evaluated according to the operating parameters, such as current density and contact time. In addition, the fouling mechanism was investigated. Compared to the control (i.e., no electro-coagulation), membrane fouling for filtration of the activated sludge suspension after electro-coagulation was reduced significantly. Membrane fouling was improved further when the contact time was doubled under a low current density of $2.5A/m^2$. On the other hand, membrane fouling was not mitigated further, as expected, even though the contact time was doubled from 12 to 24 hr. at a current density of $10A/m^2$. This indicates that the overall decrease in membrane fouling is a function of the product of the current density and contact time. The particle size of the activated sludge flocs after electro-coagulation was changed slightly, which means that the membrane fouling reduction was not attributed to a larger particle size resulting from electro-coagulation. The experimental confirmed that the dynamic membrane made from aluminum hydroxide, Al(OH)3, and/or aluminum phosphate, Al(PO4), which had been formed during the electro-coagulation, played a key role on the reduction of membrane fouling. The dynamic membrane prevents the particles in the feed solution from deposition to the membrane pores and cake layers. Dynamic membrane formation as a result of electro-coagulation plays a critical role in the mitigation of membrane fouling in EC-MBR.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.323-328
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• 2016

Pressurized membrane used for side-stream MBR process requires fouling control strategy both for normal and abnormal operation conditions for stable operation of the facilities. In this study, $85m^3/day$ of pilot-scale side-stream MBR process was constructed for the evaluation of fouling mitigation by air bubble injection into the membrane module. In addition, fouling phenomena at abnormal operation conditions of low influent and/or loading rate were also investigated. Injection of air bubble was found to be effective in delaying transmembrane pressure (TMP) increase mainly due to scouring effect on the membrane surface, resulting in expanded filtration cycle at a high flux of $40L/m^2{\cdot}h$ (LMH). At abnormal operation condition, injection of PACl (53 mg/L as Al) into the bioreactor showed 19% reduction of TMP increase. However, inhibition of nitrifying bacteria by continuous PACl injection was observed from batch experiments. In contrast, injection of powdered activated carbon (PAC, 0.6 g/L) was able to maintain the initial TMP of $0.2kg/cm^2$ for 5 days at the abnormal conditions. It may have been caused from the adsorption of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), which was known to be excessively released during growth inhibition condition and act as the major foulants in MBR operations.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.223-229
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• 2020

Here magnetic iron oxide particles (MIOPs) were synthesized under atmospheric air and which size was controlled by regulating the flow rate of alkali addition and used for efficient removal of bovine serum albumin (BSA) from water. The MIOPs were characterized using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Fourier transformation-Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The results revealed a successful preparation of the MIOPs. The removal efficiency for BSA using MIOPs was found to be about 100% at lower concentrations (≥ 10 mg/L). The maximum adsorption of 64.7 mg/g for BSA was achieved as per the Langmuir adsorption model. In addition, microfiltration membrane for removal of BSA as model protein organic foulant is also studied. The effect of various MIOPs adsorbent sizes of 210, 680 and 1130 nm on the absorption capacity of BSA was investigated. Water permeability of the BSA integrated with the smallest size MIOPs membrane was increased by approximately 22% compared by the neat BSA membrane during dead-end filtration. Furthermore, the presence of small size MIOPs were also effective in increasing the permeate flux.

• Journal of the KSME
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• v.35 no.9
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• pp.836-847
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• 1995

파울링은 열교환기에 형성되는 열저항으로 에너지 손실에 많은 영향을 미친다. 그러나 파울링은 그 예측이나 감소 또는 제거가 매우 어려운 것으로 인식되어 왔다. 작동유체자체를 철결하게 유지함으로써 파울링을 감소할 수도 있으나 작동유체 자체의 특성 때문에 본질적으로 작동유체를 청결하게 유지할 수 없는 경우가 대부분이다. 즉, 폐열 회수의 대상이 되는 액체가 하천수나 생 활하수인 경우 작동액체를 청결하게 유지함으로써 파을링을 저감시피는 방법은 타당치 않다.일 본의 폐얼회수 프로젝트와 담수화 프로젝트에서 특이한 점은 두 가지 프로젝트에서 열교환기면의 파울링 문제 해경을 전열 촉진의 내용과 거의 비슷한 비중으로 다루고 있다는 점이다. 파울링은 오래 전부터 열시스템설계자의 주요 관심사였으나 큰 진전은 없었다. 그러나 현재는 주변기술이 발달로 더 이상 연구 불가능 영역은 아닐 듯 싶다.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.1397-1405
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• 2016

Mussels are stubborn organism attached to solid substrate by byssus threads and caused operational problems in utility of power generating stations. Sole and combined usage of ultrasonic (28 kHz- and 42 kHz- frequencies) and hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$) has studied for control of blue mussel larvae and adult stage in seawater condition. A theoretical wo rking model using disinfection (Chick and Watson type) approaches is presented based on helpful results of experiments. This study also demonstrate that the combined treatment (ultra-sonication with $H_2O_2$) is overall highly efficient than individual treatment would, but on the basis of exposure time, the ultra-sonication was the most efficient among them. Therefore the development of sole and combined technique might be effective practical mitigation strategy against mussel attachment for water handling facilities.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.161-168
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• 2017

Microfiltration (MF) and Ultrafiltration (UF) membrane processes capable of producing highly purified water have been extensively applied as a pretreatment process in the wastewater reuse field with the improvement of membrane properties and resistance, development of operating protocols, and improvement of technologies of backwashing and physicochemical cleaning, and improvement of scale and antifoulants. However, despite of the development of membrane production and process technologies, fouling still remains unresolved. This study confirmed that foulants such as polysaccharides, proteins and humic substances existed in final treated effluent (secondary effluent) by fluorescence excitation emission matrix (FEEM) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. In addition, when constructing ozone oxidation and coagulation processes as a hybrid process, the removal efficiency was 5.8%, 6.9%, 5.9%, and 28.2% higher than that of the single process using coagulation in turbidity, color, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and UV254, respectively. The reversible and irreversible resistances in applying the hybrid process consisting of ozone oxidation and coagulation processes were lower than those in applying ozone oxidation and coagulation processes separately in UF membrane process. Therefore, it is considered possible to apply ozonation/coagulation as a pretreatment process for stable wastewater reuse by and then contributing to the reduction of fouling when calculating the optimal conditions for ozone oxidation and coagulation and then to applying them to membrane processes.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2018

Fresh water is an important resource for humans, and pressure-driven membrane technology has been widely known as an energy-efficient method to obtain water resource. However, membrane fouling phenomenon, which is one of the major issue during operation, deteriorates membrane permeability. These fouling is usually affected by interaction between surface of membrane and various foulants, therefore, modification of membrane's surface is one of the methods to improve fouling-resistance. This review focuses on the method to modify surface of pressure-driven membranes such as microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), and reverse osmosis (RO). Specifically, there are two different surface modification methods: (1) adsorption and coating as the physical modification methods, (2) cross-linker, free radical polymerization (FRP), atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), plasma/UV-induced polymerization as the chemical modification methods. This review introduces the physico - chemical surface modification methods reported in recent papers and suggests research directions for membrane separation which can increase membrane fouling resistance.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.273-280
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• 2016

Pressure assisted forward osmosis (PAFO) is recently introduced because of its improved process efficiency to overcome drawbacks of forward osmosis (FO) such as low water flux and reverse solute diffusion. However, it is known that membrane fouling becomes deteriorated by additional hydraulic pressure applied in PAFO compared to FO. This study was performed to investigate possibility of intermittent pressure-assisted forward osmosis (I-PAFO) operation for fouling mitigation using colloidal silica particles as model foulants. FO, PAFO were operated as well to compare with. Two different solution pH conditions (pH 3, 10) were applied to see the effect of electrostatic interactions between the membrane and silica particles on fouling tendency. In the results, higher water flux was observed during pressurization and pressure relaxation periods in I-PAFO than water flux of PAFO, and FO on both pH conditions. Water flux decreased less in I-PAFO than PAFO after fouling. It resulted in higher water flux recovery in I-PAFO than PAFO after physical 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.27 no.1
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• pp.77-83
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• 2017

Transient behavior of fouling resistance was observed with a laboratory-scaled, submerged microfiltration membrane system treating high-turbidity source water consisting of inorganic silica particles and humic acid. Fouling mitigation efficiency with inorganic silica particles caused by aeration was reduced significantly as both humic acid and calcium ion existed together. Scanning electron microscopic observations showed that humic acid was adsorbed onto the surface of inorganic silica particles in the presence of calcium. Turbidity removal was achieved almost completely by submerged MF system regardless of feed compositions. However, the $UV_{254}$ removal of humic acid was improved in the presence of both calcium and inorganic silica particles. Additionally, increasing air-flow rate tended to increase $UV_{254}$ removal efficiency higher than 80%. This may be caused by back-transport of humic acid enhanced by inorganic silica particles providing surface for organic adsorption in the presence of calcium.