• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.379-392
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• 2015

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) ultrafiltration membrane was prepared by blending 12 wt.% of PVC in N, N-dimethylacetimide (DMAc) with polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG400) as an additive. The influence of PEG400 concentration on the PVC membrane morphology, permeability, fouling and rejection were investigated. Fouling and rejection of the PVC membrane were characterized by dextran T-100 filtration. The results showed that membrane water flux was increased up to $682Lm^{-2}h^{-1}$ when 28 wt.% of PEG400 was added into the PVC membrane solution. The best membrane performance with a low fouling and a high selectivity was achieved by adding 12 wt.% concentration of PEG400, which resulted in 90% rejection of dextran and 90% of flux recovery ratio. At further addition of PEG400 concentration, irreversible fouling was starting to increase. A 90% of irreversible fouling was formed in the PVC membrane when more than 22 wt.% of PEG400 is added.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.499-515
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate membrane fouling caused by microalgal cells in submerged membrane systems consisting of polymeric and ceramic microfiltration membranes. In this study, one polymeric (flat-sheet, pore size: $0.2{\mu}m$) and two ceramic (flat-sheet, pore size: $0.2{\mu}m$ and cylindrical, pore size: $1{\mu}m$) membranes were used. Physical cleaning was performed with water and air to determine the potential for reversible and irreversible membrane fouling. The study results showed that substantial irreversible membrane fouling (after four filtration cycles, irreversible fouling degree 27% (cleaning with water) and 38% (cleaning with air)) occurs in the polymeric membrane. In cleaning studies performed using water and air on ceramic membranes, it was observed that compressed air was more effective (recovery rate: 87-91%) for membrane cleaning. The harvesting performance of the membranes was examined through critical flux experiments. The critical flux values for polymeric membrane with a pore size of $0.20{\mu}m$ and ceramic membranes with a pore size of $0.20{\mu}m$ and $1{\mu}m$ were ${\leq}95L/m^2hour$, ${\leq}70L/m^2hour$ and ${\leq}55L/m^2hour$, respectively. It was determined that critical flux varies depending on the membrane material and the pore size. To obtain more information on membrane fouling caused by microalgal cells, the characterization of the fouled polymeric membrane was performed. This study concluded that ceramic membranes with a pore size of $0.2-1{\mu}m$ in the submerged membrane system could be efficiently used for microalgae harvesting by cleaning the membrane with compressed air at regular intervals.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.268-275
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• 2015

Effects of aeration intensity on local fouling were investigated in submerged membrane modules. Higher liquid velocities were observed at the section with the lower fiber packing density. The liquid velocity is increased with increasing the gas-liquid injection factor. The high shear stress coincided with the high liquid velocity. The shear stress increases with the increasing of gas-liquid injection factor and the liquid velocity improves with the increasing of gas-liquid injection factor. Irreversible fouling resistance ($R_{ir}$) of the fiber position is significant in a local region of high suction pressure near the suction point of the fiber (position 1). The ratio of $R_{ir}/R_m$ and $R_{ir}/R_r$ of position 1 was highest compared to the position 2 and 3. Irreversible fouling resistances results confirmed the preferential deposition of foulants near the suction part of the fiber where the local suction pressure is the highest and correspondingly, more particles are accumulated to the membrane surface. The effects of local fouling along the fiber length are significant factors to optimize the design of submerged modules.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.34 no.9
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• pp.637-643
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• 2012

This study was carried out to investigate how reversible and irreversible fouling were distributed in the filtration using ceramic membrane of 300 kDa pore size for secondary effluent of wastewater. It was performed by calculating fouling as numerical method for diverse TMPs and measured F-EEM and SEC for raw water, treated water and backwashed water. Water quality was also checked to know whether treated water quality was stable or not. The results showed that reversible fouling formation was increased when lower TMP was applied and it is caused by protein like organic matters having higher molecular weights. The secondary wastewater effluent had diverse molecular weight materials, especially contaminants lower than 0.5 kDa and bigger than 12 kDa. Decreasing TMP induced contaminants above 12 kDa and below 1 kDa to become reversible fouling.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.298-308
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• 2019

This work deals with the membrane fouling mode and the unclogging in seawater ultrafiltration process. The identification of the fouling mechanism by modeling the experimental flux decline was performed using both the classical models of Hermia and the combined models of Bolton. The results show that Bolton models did not bring more precise information than the Hermia's and the flux decline can be described by one of the four Hermia's models since the backwash interval is ${\leq}60$ min. An experimental screening study has been then conducted to choose among 5 parameters (backwash interval, duration, pulses and the flow-rate or injected hypochlorite concentration) those that are the most influential on the fouling and the net water production. It has emerged that fouling is mainly affected by the backwash interval; its prolongation from 30 to 60 min engenders an increase in the reversible fouling and a decrease in the irreversible fouling. This later is also significantly reduced when the hypochlorite concentration increases from 4.5 to 10 ppm. Moreover, the net water production significantly increases with increasing the filtration duration up to 60 min and decreases with decreasing the backwash duration and backwash flow-rate from 10 to 40 s and from 15 to ${\geq}20L.min^{-1}$, respectively.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.433-449
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• 2016

The successful application of cleaning protocols is vital for optimized filtration processes. A series of experiments with an ultrafiltration ceramic tubular membrane were carried out for the foulants dextran and carboxymethyl cellulose. Firstly, the impact on fouling of concentration changes was investigated with the increase in resistance being used as the key parameter. In the second phase, removal of reversible fouling was also investigated by employing intermittent rinsing consisting of a cold water rinse followed by a hot one. A comparative analysis for both foulants is reported. Across a range of concentrations and for both foulants, the reduction in resistance due to rinsing was found to depend upon concentration (C); it changed as $C^n$ where n was found to be 0.3. A plausible semi-theoretical explanation is given. Thirdly, for both foulants, the application of a combination of strong alkaline solutions with oxidizing agent (mainly sodium hypochlorite) followed by acid was found to be appropriate for cleaning of the ceramic membrane. The effect of increased temperature for cleaning agents followed by a warm water rinse contributed positively to the cleaning capability.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.38-46
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• 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 the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.260-265
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• 2019

Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) (EC 1.1.1.1) was selected as the enzyme which will be immobilized on ultrafiltration membrane by fouling with different transmembrane pressure of 1, 2 and 3 bars. ADH will catalyze formaldehyde (CHOH) to methanol ($CH_3OH$) and simultaneously oxidized nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) to $NAD^+$. The concentration of enzyme and pH are fixed at 0.1 mg/ml and pH 7.0 respectively. The objective of the study focuses on the effect of different transmembrane pressure (TMP) on enzyme immobilization in term of permeate flux, observed rejection, enzyme loading and fouling mechanism. The results showed that at 1 bar holds the lowest enzyme loading which is 1.085 mg while 2 bar holds the highest enzyme loading which is 1.357 mg out of 3.0 mg as the initial enzyme feed. The permeate flux for each TMP decreased with increasing cumulative permeate volume. The observed rejection is linearly correlated with the TMP where increase in TMP will cause a higher observed rejection. Hermia model predicted that at irreversible fouling with standard blocking dominates at TMP of 3 bar, while cake layer and intermediate blocking dominates at 1 and 2 bar respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.77-87
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• 2018

In this study, the effects of operating conditions on the formation of reversible and irreversible fouling were investigated in the filtration using ceramic membrane for water treatment process. The effect of coagulation pretreatment on fouling formation was also evaluated by comparing the performance of membrane filtration both with and without addition of coagulant. A resistance-in-series-model was applied for the analysis of membrane fouling. Total resistance (RT) and internal fouling resistance (Rf) increased in the membrane filtration process without coagulation as membrane flux and feed water concentrations increased. Internal fouling resistance, which was not recovered by physical cleaning, was more than 70% of the total resistance at the range of the membrane flux more than $5m^3/m^2{\cdot}day$. In the combined process with coagulation, the cake layer resistance (Rc) increased to about 30-80% of total resistance. As the cake layer formed by coagulation floc was easily removed by physical cleaning, the recovery rate by physical cleaning was 54~90%. It was confirmed from the results that the combined process was more efficient to recover the filtration performance by physical cleaning due to higher formation ratio of reversible fouling, resulted in the mitigation of the frequency of chemical cleaning.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.459-469
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• 2009

It is well known that coagulation pretreatment can reduce foulants prior to membrane filtration. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of coagulation on fouling of ceramic microfiltration membrane($0.1 {\mu}m$) using pilot plant of $150m^3/day/train$ capacity. Train A membrane system has pretreatment process of ozonation and coagulation while train B has only coagulation. Two types of coagulation operation were investigated: back mixer(rapid mixing with or without slow mixing) which is a conventional mechanically stirred mixer and an inline static mixer. Ozone dose rate for train A was 1 mg/L and ozone contact time was 12 min. The coagulation dose(PACl 10% as $Al_2O_3$) rate was changed 20~40 mg/L according to experimental schedule. In this experimental conditions, the coagulation of back mixer type with rapid mixing(GT=72,000) and slow mixing(GT=45,000) was the best effective in reduction of ceramic membrane fouling regardless preozonation. Especially, the effect of inline static mixer was sensitive to change in water quality. Ozonation mainly affected irreversible fouling rather than reversible fouling in accordance with less adsorption of NOM on the membrane surface. Thus, the increase rate of the nomalized TMP(trans membrane pressure) at $25^{\circ}C$ for train A was relatively lower than that of train B under same coagulation process with same coagulant dosage. The best performance of ceramic membrane appeared in case of combined process with ozonation, therefore this integrated process is able to archive less coagulant dosing and secure a stability of ceramic membrane system.