• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.31-38
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• 2014

Rainwater harvesting is a process by which rainwater collected from rooftop or other catchment is purified so that the water can be directly or indirectly used by human beings for beneficial uses. As rainwater is increasingly considered for high quality purposes, membranes have gained an important place in rainwater treatment. It has advantages such as the production of high quality water, small footprint, and affordable energy consumption. Nevertheless, membrane fouling is regarded as a serious problem similar to the cases of water treatment and wastewater reclamation. In this study, we applied microfiltration (MF) membranes for rainwater treatment. In addition, a low pressure ultraviolet (UV) process was also use as a pretreatment to control notonly. To quantify the effect of UV on organic matters, both total organic carbon (TOC) and UV absorbance (UVA) were measured. Moreover, the effect of UV pretreatment on membrane fouling was investigated. Experimental results indicated that the pretreatment of membranes using LPUV was effective to control fouling of MF membranes only when the rainwater was contaminated by algae. This was attributed the reduction and modification of organics after UV treatments. It is likely that the UV/MF process is a promising option for water treatment in decentralized water treatment such as micro water grid systems.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.112-118
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• 2013

Polyancrylonitrile nanofiber membrane (PAM) was prepared by using the electrospinning method with a solution of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) in DMF. The pore-diameter of PAMs and the number of PAM's layer were controlled for the microfiltration (MF) application. In addition, in order to improve the water-flux, AN-PEGMA copolymers have been synthesized via free radical polymerization with poly (ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate and azobisisobutylronitrile (AIBN), and then PAN/AN-PEGMA nanofiber membranes (PAM/APM) were prepared by electrospinning with a mixture of PAN (9 wt%) and AN-PEGMA (3 wt%) in DMF (88 wt%). The prepared membranes were investigated with FT-IR and E.D.S. It was confirmed through scanning electron microscope (SEM), porometer, and porosity analysis that the porous membrane with a uniform diameter (400~600 nm) and a uniform pore characteristics (0.5~0.4 ${\mu}m$) was prepared. For the MF application, water-flux measurements were investigated and then the result was shown that the water permeability value of PAM/APMs introduced AN-PEGMA copolymers was relatively higher than that of the PVdF commercial membrane. From these results, PAN nanofiber membranes prepared by electrospinning could be utilized as a MF membrane.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.877-882
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• 2013

The application of ultrafiltration (UF) and microfiltration (MF) membranes has been increased for drinking water purification. The advantages of UF/MF membrane process compared to conventional treatment processes are stable operation under varying feed water quality, smaller construction area, and automatic operation. Most membrane treatment plants are designed with polymeric membranes. Recently, some studies suggested that the process of treating surface water with ceramic membranes is competitive to the application of polymeric membranes. Higher water flux, less frequent cleaning, and much longer lifetime are the advantages of ceramic membrane comparing to polymeric membrane. Therefore, this research focused on the application of ceramic MF membrane pilot plant at the slow sand filtration plant. The ceramic membrane pilot plant has three trains that used raw water and sand filtered water as a feed water, respectively. For optimizing the pilot plant process, the coagulation with PACl coagulant was used as a pretreatment of ceramic membrane process. In addition, CEB (Chemical Enhanced Backwash) process using $H_2SO_4$ and NaOCl was used for 1.5 days, respectively. The experimental results showed that applying the optimum coagulant dose before membrane filtration showed enhancing membrane fluxes for both raw water and sand filtered water. Also, when using raw water as a feed of membrane, minimum fouling rate was 2.173 kPa/cycle with 25 mg/L of PACl and when using sand filtered water, the minimum fouling rate was 0.301 kPa/cycle with 5 mg/L of PACl.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.770-777
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• 2004

Three pilot-scale membrane systems were operated using lake water as influent in this study. Microfiltration (MF) membrane with pore size of 0.01 m was used in Systen I of which filtration mode was set at constant pressure of $1kgf/cm^2$. Ultrafiltration (UF) membranes with molecular cutoff (MWCO) of 80,000 and 13,000 were used in System II-1 and II-2, respectively. Constant flow mode was applied at the range between 0.7 and $1.5m^3/m^2{\cdot}d$ (average of $1.1m^3/m^2${\cdot}d) for System II-1 and between 0.37 and $1.65m^3/m^2{\cdot}d$ (average of $1.18m^3/m^2{\cdot}d$) for System II-2. In System I, the flux changed from $1m^3/m^2{\cdot}d$ to $0.2m^3/m^2{\cdot}d$ during the operation time of 5 months. System II showed recovery of 94% under the allowable maximum pressure of $3kgf/cm^2$ during the same operation period. From these results, the efficient operation was observed in constant flow mode with respect to filtration time and recovery. Average filtrate turbidity showed 0.0071 NTU in System I and 0.0054 NTU in System II, which implied that high turbidity removal was obtained in both MF and UF systems with no significant difference between MF and UF. From the fact that membrane flux depends largely on membrane type and operation mode, a guideline of optimum design and operation should be suggested for application of membrane systems to full scale water treatment.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1993.04a
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• pp.12-15
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• 1993

방사선 graft 중합법을 이용하여, microfiltration hollow fiber(MF)에 affinity ligand로서 소수성 아미노산 (tryptophan)을 고정하였다. affinity막에 압력차를 주어 막의 안쪽으로 부터 바깥쪽으로 단백질 용액을 투과시키면서, 단백질의 흡착 성능을 알아보았다. affinity막이 확산이동 저항이 없는 우수한 분리 기능 재료인 것을 나타내었다.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.148-156
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• 2012

In this research, the application of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) modified PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) membrane was tested as a simply and beginning attempt to overcome membrane fouling because CNTs importantly affect the transport of natural organic matter (NOM). Suwannee River fulvic acid (SRFA) as the representative of NOM was selected and its sorption results with single-walled CNT (SWCNT), multi-walled CNT (MWCNT), and oxidized MWCNT (O-MWCNT) were obtained through the batch experiment. SRFA sorption isotherms had a strong nonlinearity and its sorption capacity followed the order O-MWCNT < MWCNT < SWCNT. The adsorbed mass of SRFA on each CNT decreased as a function of pH due to their charge repulsion. For the CNT-PVDF membrane filtration experiments, the suspended CNT solution (10 mg/40 mL) was incorporated into $0.45{\mu}m$-PVDF membrane and 5 mg/L of SRFA solution was monitored using UV detector connected with high pressure pump after passing through CNT-PVDF membrane. The SRFA removal efficiency by MWCNT-PVDF membrane was the strongest among other modified membranes. This suggests that the CNT modified microfiltration (MF) membrane might effectively and selectively apply to treat the contaminated water including organic compounds in the presence of NOM.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.224-230
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• 2000

Membrane processes are capable of removing much materials from water. The removal or rejection characteristics of a membrane is usually depend upon the nominal pore size or MWCO(molecular weight cut off). A membrane with a smaller nominal pore size or MWCO should be capable of removing smaller contaminants from water. A series of experiments was performed to investigate the separation characteristics of membrane processes which consisted of microfiltration(MF) and nanofiltration(NF). To evaluate removal efficiencies of some pollutants such as the consumption of $KMnO_4$, THMFP, NH3-N, Fe, Mn, and pesticides, source water sampled from the Kum river was treated by the those membrane processes. Also, the results of experiments were compared with those of conventional water treatment processes. By two types of the membrane process, total removal efficiency of $KMnO_4$ consumed, THMEP, and $NH_3-N$ were 91.0%, 84.3%, and 85.5%, respectively and those processes were efficient in pesticides removal as well. Most of the effluents satisfied the Korean standard of drinking water quality continuously in the experimental periods. However, NF was needed for producing the safe drinking water in case of treating the raw water contaminated with Mn since removal efficiency of MF was not high enough. On the basis of the experimental results, it was suggested that NF could be applied to remove not only $NH_3-N$ but THMFP even without pre-chlorination.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.9
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• pp.624-629
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• 2013

The relation between performance maintenance conditions and those cost efficiency was studied to choose an optimum operating condition in the seawater desalination pretreatment system. A hollow fiber microfiltration module, which was developed with domestic technology, was tested with the various operating conditions such as chemically enhanced backwash cycles and design dosages of a cleaning chemical. Transmembrane pressure was measured to investigate membrane fouling status and cleaning degree. In addition, economic analysis was performed to compare water production costs by the operation condition. As a result, The operation mode III, chemically enhanced backwash at once a day with 100 mg/L of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) was selected. The concurrent evaluation between membrane filtration performance and its economic analysis will be suitable to choose an efficient optimum condition.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.204-210
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• 2013

Recently, many applications with grapheneoxide (GO) have been reported. But GO membrane for water treatment has not been developed. In this study we prepared polyvinylidene difluoride (PVdF) nanofiber/GO hybrid membrane (FG) for the microfiltration application. The PVdF substrate membrane was prepared by using the electrospinning method with a solution of PVdF in N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) and acetone. GO sheets used in this study were prepared by modified Hummer's method. The PVdF/GO hybrid membrane was finally prepared by spraying the GO solution dispersed in ethanol on the PVdF nanofiber. The successfully prepared FG was thoroughly examined by SEM, Raman, contact angle, porometer and UTM, and water-flux was measured with designed cell (Dead-End Cell). From the contact angle results, it was found that the surface of FG membrane was reformed by hydrophilic property and the water permeability was increased about 2.5 times than that of the nascent PVdF membrane, indicating the possible alternative of the commercial MF membrane.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.143-155
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• 2013

Four membranes were used to separate Chlorella sp. from their culture medium in cross-flow microfiltration (MF) experiments: cellulose acetate (CA), cellulose nitrate (CN), polypropylene (PP) and polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF). It was found that the hydrophilic CA and CN membranes with a pore size of 1.2 ${\mu}m$ exhibited the best performances among all the membranes in terms of permeation flux. The hydrophobicity of each membrane material was determined by measuring the angle between the water (liquid) and membrane (solid). Contact angle measurements showed that deionized (DI) water had almost adsorbed onto the surfaces of the CA and CN membranes, which gave $0.00^{\circ}$ contact angle values. The PP and PVDF membranes were more hydrophobic, giving contact angle values of $95.97^{\circ}$ and $126.63^{\circ}$, respectively. Although the pure water flux increased with increasing pore diameter (0.8 < 1.2 < 3.0 ${\mu}m$) in hydrophilic CA and CN membranes, the best performance in term of filtration rate for filtering a microalgae suspension was attained by membranes with a pore size of 1.2 ${\mu}m$. The fouled membrane pore sizes and pore blocking were inspected using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). MF with large pore diameters was more sensitive to fouling that contributed to intermediate blocking, where the size of the membrane pores is almost equivalent to that of cells.