• 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.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.72-83
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• 2011

For advanced drinking water treatment of high turbidity water, we used the hybrid module that was composed of photocatalyst packing between outside of tubular ceramic microfiltration membrane and membrane module inside. Photocatalyst was PP (polypropylene) bead coated $TiO_2$ powder by CVD (chemical vapor deposition) process. Instead of natural organic matters (NOM) and fine inorganic particles in natural water source, modified solution was prepared with humic acid and kaolin. Water-back-flushing of 10 sec was performed per every period of 10 min to minimize membrane fouling. Resistance of membrane fouling ($R_f$) decreased and J increased as concentration of humic acid changed from 10 mg/L to 2 mg/L, and finally the highest total permeate volume ($V_T$) could be obtained at 2 mg/L. Then, treatment efficiencies of turbidity and $UV_{254}$ absorbance were above 98.5% and 85.7%, respectively. As results of treatment portions by membrane filtration, photocatalyst adsorption, and photo-oxidation in MF, MF + $TiO_2$, and MF + $TiO_2$ + UV processes, turbidity was treated little by photocatalyst adsorption, and photo-oxidation. However, treatment portions of humic acid by adsorption and photo-oxidation were above 10.7 and 8.6%, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.15-18
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• 2004

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was applied to modeling particle dynamics in microfiltration (MF). The rejection properties of poly methylmethacrylate (PMMA) and polystyrene (PS) were calculated. Calculated rejection (R) of PMMA was independent with the porosity of the membrane, and the R was constant in the range of volume flux between $1\times 1-^{-4}-1\times 10^{-2}$ m/s. These observations were in quantity agreement with our experimental observations. The dependence of PMMA and PS rejection on the ratio of particle diameter and pore diameter were good agreement with the experimental values, which suggesting that the validity of CFD simulation to evaluate rejection of particle in MF membranes. Change of rejection of PMMA as a function of time was molded based on the CFD result which explained well the experimental observation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.779-785
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• 2013

This study investigated the applicability of a two step microfiltration(MF) and reverse osmosis(RO) membrane system for reuse of tunnel wastewater. In this two step process, the MF system first treated only micropollutants in tunnel wastewater such as suspended solids(SS) and heavy metals, achieving less than 0.2 NTU turbidity, less than 1.1 mg/L chemical oxygen demand($COD_{Mn}$) and less than 0.8 mg/L total manganese(Mn). The RO system then removed over 95 % of the remaining pollutnats and particles, resulting in less than 0.02 NTU turbidity, less than 0.5 mg/L chemical oxygen demand($COD_{Mn}$), less than 0.04 mg/L total nitrogen(T-N) and less than 0.01 mg/L total phosphorus(T-P). In particular, addition of an RO system could lead to markedly reduced high salt concentrations in tunnel wastewater, approaching almost zero. Thus, reclaimed water using the combined membrane system could satisfy current South Korean regulations concerning wastewater reuse(turbidity ${\leq}2.0$ NTU; T-N ${\leq}10mg/L$; T-P ${\leq}0.5mg/L$; Salinity ${\leq}250mg{\cdot}Cl/L$).

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.159-169
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• 2013

The effect of humic acid (HA), and the roles of microfiltration (MF), PES (polyethersulfone) beads adsorption, and photo-oxidation were investigated in hybrid process of ceramic MF and PES beads loaded with titanium dioxide ($TiO_2$) photocatalyst for advanced drinking water treatment. The results of water and nitrogen back-flushing were compared in viewpoints of membrane fouling resistance ($R_f$), permeate flux (J), and total permeate volume ($V_T$). Because membrane fouling increased dramatically as increasing HA, Rf increased and J decreased, and finally $V_T$ was the highest at 2 mg/L HA. Average turbidity treatment efficiencies were almost same independent of HA concentration. Average organic matter treatment efficiency was the minimum 71.4% at 10 mg/L HA in water back-flushing, but those were almost constant in nitrogen back-flushing. The hybrid process of MF, PES beads, and UV (MF + $TiO_2$ + UV) have the lowest $R_f$, and the highest J and $V_T$ in both water and nitrogen back-flushing. The turbidity and organic matter treatment efficiencies were the maximum at MF + $TiO_2$ + UV independent of water and nitrogen back-flushing, and decreased sequently as simplifying the process to MF. However, adsorption performed the more important role than photo-oxidation in water back-flushing, and photo- oxidation was the more than adsorption in nitrogen back-flushing.