• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.31-38
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• 2003

A pilot scale biofilter pretreatment-microfiltration system (BF-MF) was operated to investigate the effect of biofilter treatment in fouling reduction of microfiltration. Biofiltration was expected to reduce the membrane fouling by removal of turbidity and metal oxides. The hollow-fiber MF module with a nominal pore size of 0.1$\mu$m and a surface area of 8m$^2$ was submerged in a filtration tank and microfiltration was operated at a constant flux of 0.5 m/d. Biofiltration using polypropylene pellets was performed at a high filtration velocity of 320 m/d. Two experimental setups composed of MF and BF/MF, i.e., without and with biofilter pretreatment, were compared. Throughout the experimental period of 9 months, biofilter pretreatment was effective to reduce the membrane fouling, which was proved by the result of time variations of trans-membrane pressure and backwash conditions. The turbidity removal rate by biofiltration varied between 40% to 80% due to the periodic washing for biofilter contactor and raw water turbidity. In addition to turbidity, metals, especially Mn, Fe and Al were removed effectively with average removal rates of 89.2%, 67.8% and 64.9%, respectively. Further analysis of foulants on the used membranes revealed that turbidity and metal removal by biofiltration was the major effect of biofiltration pretreatment against microfiltration fouling.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.801-806
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• 2004

The pilot study was conducted to (i) investigate the ability of various membrane integrity monitoring methods to detect changes in membrane integrity during operation, and (ii) determine the impact of membrane damage on microbial removal by microfiltration. Two variations of air pressure hold tests were investigated for direct integrity monitoring: pressure decay (PD) and diffusive air flow (DAF) tests which are most commonly used integrity tests for microfiltration (MF) membranes. Both PD and DAF tests were sensitive enough to detect one damaged fiber out of 66,000 under field operaing conditions. Indirect integrity monitoring such as turbidity and particle counting, however, responded poorly to defects in membrane systems. Microbial challenge study was performed using both new and deliberately damaged membranes, as well as varying the state of fouling of the membrane. This study demonstrated that MF membrane with nominal pore size $0.2{\mu}m$ was capable of removing various pathogens including coliform, spore, and cryptosporidium, at the level required by drinking water regulations, even when high operating pressures were applied. A sharp decrease in average log reduction value (LRV) was observed when one fiber was damaged, emphasizing the importance of membrane integrity in control of microbial contamination.

• 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%).

• Membrane Journal
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.320-325
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• 2010

This paper was carried out to study the preparation condition and the permeation flux of reinforced poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) hollow fiber microfiltration (MF) membrane with the solvent, additive, second miscible polymer, and preparation condition used poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) such as a material with the excellent chemical stability and the milder preparation condition. The performance of the reinforced MF membrane prepared obtained the average $0.3{\mu}m$ pore size, $42kg_f/cm^2$ tensile strength, and the high water flux of 600 LMH. The change of membrane performance with various additives was considerably affected on the water flux and rejection. For hydrophilic modification of hydrophobic PVDF MF membrane, the MF membrane might be prepared with a prefer water flux and rejection by addition of hydrophilic poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA).

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.93-116
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• 1999

MF membrane element was specially designed for water purification and VSA process which can solve the fouling problem. Especially VSA process is developed for the SK Chemicals' asymmetric microfiltration hollow fiber membranes. In case of outside-to-in filtration process, MF membrane element showed the excellent flux stability caused by cleaning ability of VSA process . Simultaneous back-washing with VSA consideratbly enhances cleaning efficiency. From the result the possibility of the replacement of chemical coagulation and sand filtration process with newly developed VSA process was revealed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.723-734
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• 2010

With a belief of high water quality production and less chemical usage, membrane technology including Microfiltration (MF), Ultrafiltration (UF), and Nanofiltration(NF) is being employed more and more in drinking water treatment process. However, due to higher energy consumption of UF and NF, MF is normally used for drinking water treatment especially in a plant of large scale. In this investigation, performance ofsand filtration and membrane filtration was compared regarding removal of various water quality parameters, such as TOC, DOC, KMnO4 consumption, THMFP, and HAAFP. Two lines of pilot plant have been operated, one of which line is a traditional advanced water treatment process which includes sedimentation, sand filtration, ozonation, and activated carbon, and the other line is an alternative treatment process which includes sedimentation with inclined plate, MF membrane, ozonation, and activated carbon. For the first about 4months of period, MF filtration showed similar or little bit higher performance than sand filtration. However, after about 4month later, sand filtration showed much higher performance in removing all parameters monitored in the investigation. It was found that sand filtration is a better option than MF filtration as far as microbial community is fully activated in sand filter bed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.735-741
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• 2010

A pilot test was carried out to investigate the long term operation characteristics of Microfiltration (MF) system as a pretreatment for seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) processes for two years. A commercialized MF module with pressurized operation type was used to filter seawater to remove particles which can foul reverse osmosis (RO) membrane. Silt Density Index (SDI) values of filtered seawater by the MF system were ranged from 0.14 to 1.79, which meet the SDI standard for RO feed water as depicted in previous literatures. Although the tested seawater is quite clean (i.e., dissolved organic cabon (DOC) concentration and turbidity were about 1 mg/l and less than 1 NTU, respectively) enough not to foul the MF membrane, steep increase in trans-membrane pressure (TMP) with a constant flux were observed over a whole operation period. A set of operation and water analysis data implies that the steep increase in TMP was resulted from iron and maganese fouling by the combination of metal corrosion by seawater and oxidation state by aeration and residual chlorine.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.549-554
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• 2014

This study was evaluated the applicability of the membrane filtration process (Micro Filtration (MF), nanofiltration membranes (NF), reverse osmosis (RO)) on the major radioactive substances, iodine ($I^-$) and cesium ($Cs^+$) using membranes produced in Korea and domestic raw water. Iodine ($I^-$) or cesium ($Cs^+$) in the microfiltration membrane (MF) process could not be expected removal efficiency by eliminating marginally at the combined state with colloidal and turbidity material. At the domestic raw water (lake water, turbidity 1.2 NTU, DOC 1.3 mg/L) conditions, nanofiltration membrane (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) showed a high removal rate of about 88 ~ 99% for iodine ($I^-$) and cesium ($Cs^+$) and likely to be an alternative process for the removal of radioactive material.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.13-21
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• 2008

With the rise in membrane applications, residuals management has become a growing challenge for membrane system. The primary residuals of MF/UF (microfiltration/ultrafiltration) system results from the wastes generated during backwashing. Many regulatory agencies, utilities, and water process engineers are unfamiliar with the characteristics and methods for treatment and disposal of membrane residuals. Therefore, this study was performed to investigate the backwash residuals water quality from the pressurized system with and without pre-coagulation, and to suggest approaches for the backwash residuals treatment. Pressurized MF system was installed at Guui water intake pumping station and operated with raw water taken from the Han River. We compared performances with and without the recycling backwash residuals at flux conditions, 50 LMH and 90 LMH with and without pre-treatment (coagulation). Based on the results, recycling of backwash residuals in pressurized system with pre-coagulation showed applicability of backwash residuals managements. Moreover, the recovery rate also increased up to over 99%.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.31-37
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• 2009

Low-pressure membrane processes have been extensively expanded their applications to drinking water production in a few decades. As a capacity of a membrane plant becomes greater in recent years, proper methods to increase water production as well as to treat residuals have drawn great attention. A possible treatment option for the better water production is to apply a dual membrane system. The second stage microfiltration was installed and operated for approximately six months. The residuals from the two stage microfiltration were investigated to learn their characteristics in settling and dewatering processes. The settlability of the membrane residuals were greatest at the SS concentration of approximately 15000mg/L. The proper dose of the polyelectrolytes for filterability were obtained in the range of 0.5~1%. In the dosage range, the water contents of the membrane residuals were greater but the SRF were lower than the residual from the conventional process.