• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.175-189
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• 2013

A membrane bioreactor (MBR) with sludge retention time (SRT) of 300 days was maintained for over 2 years. Polypropylene microfiltration (MF) membrane with pore size of 0.2 ${\mu}m$ was used in the MBR system. The fouling behaviors of various sludge fractions from the MBR were studied and sub-divided resistances were analyzed. It was observed that $R_{cp}$ was a dominant resistance during the filtration of activated sludge, contributing 63.0% and 59.6% to the total resistance for MBR and sequential batch reactor (SBR) respectively. On the other hand, $R_c$ played the significant role during the filtration of supernatant and solutes, varying between 54.54% and 67.18%. Compared with $R_{cp}$ and $R_c$, $R_{if}$ was negligible, and $R_m$ values remained constant at $0.20{\times}10^{12}m^{-1}$. Furthermore, resistances of all sludge fractions increased linearly with rising mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) concentration and growing trans-membrane pressure (TMP), while the relationship was inversed between fraction resistances and cross flow velocity (CFV). Among all fractions of activated sludge, suspended solid was the main contributor to the total resistance. A compact cake layer was clearly observed according to the field emission scanning electro microscopy (FE-SEM) images.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.365-369
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• 2004

Submerged membrane bio-reactor equipped with a hollow fiber microfiltration was applied to reuse weaving wastewater of water jet loom, where two parameters such as the concentration of MLSS and the flux were controlled. While the flux at the concentration of MLSS around 900mg/L was constantly kept over 0.4m/d and 0.8m/d in a short time, the stable flux at around 300mg/L of MLSS was shown at the 8 days later. Regardless of MLSS and flux, BOD, CODcr and Turbidity of the permeate were 1~2mg/L, 7~10mg/L and below 1 NTU, which were 85~90%, 87~90% and 98% of removal efficiency, respectively. The stable operation without fouling was achieved because the contents of ECP were smaller than those of common MBR processes and the composition(saccharide/protein) was kept constantly. In this study, 0.5~1.0m/d of flux and 400~900mg/L of MLSS were considered as the most recommendable operating condition for the reuse of weaving wastewater.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.423-429
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• 2008

Microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF) processes for removal of particulate materials (i.e., turbidity, microorganisms and viruses) have been used to produce drinking water with higher quality. As membrane filtration technique has become widely applied for drinking water treatment, the importance of membrane integrity test (MIT) has also been increasingly emphasized. The results of pressure decay test (PDT) were presented in the paper to monitor membrane integrity. In this paper the PDT was carried out with deliberately-defected membrane fibers to evaluate the sensitivity of PDT on membrane fiber damage. Variation of pressure decay rate and removal rate were investigated to evaluate the impact of defection (defection ratio) and pore size of membrane. The membrane integrity could be successfully monitored by the PDT. The pressure decay rate varied from $0.002{\sim}0.189kg_f/cm^2hr$ with the initial pressure ranged from 0.2 to $1.0kg_f/cm^2hr$. Higher initial pressure which provided with higher pressure decay rate was preferred to evaluate the defection of membrane fiber. As for the particle removal rate, the Log Removal Rate (LRV) of kaolin solution decreased significantly from 3.78 to 2.31 when one fiber out of 3,200 fibers was cut. The membranes with different pore size were tested to evaluate virus removal efficiency. The virus removal rate of the MF membrane ($0.1{\mu}m$) was about 30% although the poliovirus was smaller than the pore size of the MF membrane, indicating that the removal rate was much lower than Korea Water Works Association (KWWA) certificate LRV of 1.5.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.267-277
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• 2013

The effect of water back-flushing period (FT) and water back-flushing time (BT) was compared with the previous study of nitrogen back-flushing in viewpoints of resistance of membrane fouling ($R_f$), permeate flux (J), and total permeate volume ($V_T$) in hybrid process of tubular ceramic microfiltration and PES (polyethersulfone) beads loaded $TiO_2$ photocatalyst for advanced drinking water treatment. As FT decreasing, Rf decreased, but J and $V_T$ increased. Turdity treatment efficiency was the maximum at NBF (no back-flushing) and increased a little as FT decreasing in both water and nitrogen back-flushing. Organic matter treatment efficiency was the maximum at FT 4 min in water back-flushing, but increased as FT decreasing in nitrogen back-flushing. As BT increasing, Rf and resistance of reversible membrane fouling ($R_{rf}$) decreased, but J and $V_T$ increased. The turdity treatment efficiency was almost constant beyond 98% in water back-flushing, but increased as BT increasing except NBF in nitrogen. The organic matter treatment efficiency was the maximum at BT 6 sec in water back-flushing, but increased as BT increasing except NBF in nitrogen. The $V_T$ was the maximum at BT 30 and FT 2 min, and optimal condition was BT 30 sec per FT 2 min in this experimental range.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.123-135
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• 2014

The effects of pH, saturated oxygen, and back-flushing media were investigated in hybrid process of tubular ceramic microfiltration and $TiO_2$ photocatalyst-loaded PES (polyethersulfone) beads for advanced drinking water treatment, and compared results of water, nitrogen, or oxygen back-flushing in the viewpoints of membrane fouling resistance ($R_f$), permeate flux (J) and total treated water ($V_T$). $R_f$ decreased, and J and $V_T$ increased as decreasing pH. Turbidity treatment efficiencies were similar at water or nitrogen back-flushing independent of pH, but DOM (dissolved organic matter) treatment efficiency did not have a trend at water back-flushing. $R_f$ at NBF (no back-flushing) with SO (saturated oxygen) was the lower than that at NBF without SO. Also, the DOM treatment efficiency at NBF with SO was the lower than that at NBF without SO. It happened because OH radicals produced by reaction of SO and photocatalyst could dilute with water inside the module. The DOM treatment efficiency of gas back-flushing showed the larger than that of water back-flushing at back-flushig period 10 min. It proved that the adsorption or photo-oxidation of PES beads could be activated by the more effective bead-cleaning of gas back-flushing than water back-flushing.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.114-120
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to obtain practical information about membrane coupled $ A_2O$ system for muncipal wastewater treatment. A flat-plate microfiltration (MF) module with a pore size $0.25\;{\mu}m$ was submerged into the aeration basin and treated water was filtrated through the membrane by continuous suction with low pressure. The system was operated with synthetic wastewater to find operational parameters of internal recycle ratio and maximum MLSS showing best water quality and long-term stability. The internal recycle was defined as type 1 for aerobic to anoxic tank and type 2 for anoxic to anaerobic tank, respectively When the flux was maintained at $0.015\;m^3/m^2/hr$ (15 LMH) with 2Q type 1 internal recycle ratio, the optimal operational setting were 10 internal recycle ratio for type 2 and maximum MLSS of 11,000 mg/L among tested conditions. At this condition, removal efficiencies of BOD, CODcr, T-N and T-P showed $97.3\%,\;94.2\%,\;64.0\%,\;63.0\%$, respectively.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.120-126
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• 2010

In this study, the effect of surface deposition of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles at polyethersulfone (PES) microfiltraiton (MF) membrane on humic acid fouling was investigated. The effect was observed as a function of crystal structures of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles and solution chemistries including pH and divalent cation such as calcium. Our results showed clearly that $TiO_2$-deposited membrane could mitigate membrane fouling significantly. However, this effect was observed to be dependent upon crystal structures of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles and solution chemistries. In the absence of calcium, fouling mitigation was less pronounced for both anatase and hybrid $TiO_2$-deposited membrane than for rutile $TiO_2$-deposited membrane while opposite trend was observed after addition of calcium. In the presence of calcium, the adsorption of humic acid to $TiO_2$-deposited membrane can be reduced by electrostatic repulsions between humic acid and $TiO_2$ surface. Addition of calcium provided further beneficial effect on fouling mitigation particularly at higher pH for the anatase $TiO_2$ deposited membrane, implying that both increased hydrophilicity due to $TiO_2$ nanoparticles and negative surface charge of the membrane should affect fouling mitigation. However, rutile $TiO_2$ having more inertness generally than the anatase $TiO_2$ showed relatively robust effect on the fouling mitigation regardless of solution properties.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.226-236
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• 2013

The effect of $N_2$ back-flushing period (FT) and time (BT) was compared with the previous result used PES (polyethersulfone) beads loaded with titanium dioxide photocatalyst in hybrid process of alumina microfiltration and PP (polypropylene) beads coated with photocatalyst in viewpoints of membrane fouling resistance ($R_f$), permeate flux (J), and total permeate volume ($V_T$). The reason of nitrogen back-washing instead of the general air back-washing method is to minimize the possible effect of oxygen included in air on water quality analysis. As decreasing FT, $R_f$ decreased and J and $V_T$ increased. Treatment efficiency of dissolved organic matters (DOM) was 82.0%, which was the higher than 78.0% of the PES beads result. This means that PP beads coated with photocatalyst was the more effective than PES beads loaded with photo-catalyst in the DOM removal. As increasing BT, the final $R_f$ decreased and the final J increased, but $V_T$ was the maximum at BT 15 sec. The average treatment efficiency of turbidity did not have any trend as changing BT. As BT increasing from 6 sec to 30 sec, the treatment efficiency of DOM increased 11.8%, which was a little higher than the result of PES beads.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.39-49
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• 2014

The effects of pH and oxygen back-flushing were investigated in hybrid process of ceramic microfiltration and PES (polyethersulfone) beads loaded with titanium dioxide ($TiO_2$) photocatalyst for advanced drinking water treatment in viewpoints of membrane fouling resistance ($R_f$), permeate flux (J), and total permeate volume ($V_T$). As increasing pH, $R_f$ decreased and J increased. Finally the maximum $V_T$ could be acquired at pH 9. Treatment efficiencies of turbidity was almost same independent of pH. Treatment efficiency of dissolved organic matters (DOM) decreased as increasing pH. As results of comparing the oxygen and nitrogen back-flushing, $R_{f,180}$ at oxygen back-flushing was the lower than that at nitrogen back-flushing, and the dimensionless final permeate flux ($J_{180}/J_0$) by initial permeate flux ($J_0$) at oxygen back-flushing was maintained the higher than that at nitrogen back-flushing except 10 and 12 min of back-flushing period (FT). Treatment efficiency of turbidity at oxygen back-flushing was a little higher than that at nitrogen back-flushing. Treatment efficiency of the DOM at nitrogen back-flushing was the higher than that at oxygen back-flushing. Also, treatment efficiency of turbidity at saturated oxygen was similar with those of oxygen and nitrogen back-flushing, but the treatment efficiency of DOM was increased significantly because OH radical could be generated by reaction between saturated oxygen and photocatalyst.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.954-959
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• 1999

Radiation-induced grafting of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate(HEMA), acrylic acid(AAc) and methacrylic acid(MAAc) onto polypropylene microfiltration membrane has been studied. The effect of grafting conditions such as solvent composition(MeOH and $H_2O$) and monomer concentration on the grafting yield in investigated. The highest degree of grafting is obtained at a solvent composition of 25% $H_2O$:75% MeOH for HEMA, pure water for AAc and 50% $H_2O$:50% MeOH for MAAc. Modification of the PP membranes with hydrophilic monomers is shown to cause an increase in the water permeation flux of the membranes. It is found that HEMA is the best monomer to increase the water permeation flux and the highest water permeation flux is obtained at 99% degree of grafting. The water permeation flux of AAc-grafted PP membrane and MAAc-grafted PP membrane is very sensitive to environmental pH and $Cu^{2+}$ ion, but the water permeation flux of HEMA-grafted PP membrane scarcely depends on pH and $Cu^{2+}$ ion.