• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.141-149
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• 2012

The aeration provided in a Submerged Membrane Bioreactor (SMBR) improves membrane filtration by creating turbulence on the membrane surface and reducing membrane resistance. However, conventional hollow fiber membrane modules are generally packed in a vertical orientation which limits membrane scouring efficiency, especially when aeration is provided in the axial direction. In the present research, 3 innovative hollow-fiber membrane modules, each with a different membrane orientation, were developed to improve membrane scouring efficiency and enhance permeate flux. Pilot testing was performed to investigate the permeate flux versus time relationship over a 7-day period under different intermittent modes. The results indicated that the best module experienced an overall permeate flux decline of 3.3% after 7 days; the other two modules declined by 13.3% and 18.3%. The lower percentage of permeate flux decline indicated that permeate productivity could be sustained for a longer period of time. As a result, the operational costs associated with membrane cleaning and membrane replacement could be reduced over the lifespan of the module.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.191-199
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• 2022

In industrial production, the development of traditional polyamide nanofiltration (NF) membrane was limited due to its poor oxidation resistance, complex preparation process and high cost. In this study, a composite NF membrane with high flux, high separation performance, high oxidation resistance and simple process preparation was prepared by the method of dilute solution dip coating. And the sulfonated polysulfone was used for dip coating. The results indicated that the concentration of glycerin, the pore size of the based membrane, the composition of the coating solution, and the post-treatment process had important effects on the structure and performance of the composite NF membrane. The composite NF membrane prepared without glycerol protecting based membrane had a low flux, when the concentration of glycerin increased from 5% to 15%, the pure water flux of the composite NF membrane increased from 46.4 LMH to 108.2 LMH, and the salt rejection rate did not change much. By optimizing the coating system, the rejection rate of Na₂SO₄ and PEG1000 was higher than 90%, the pure water flux was higher than 40 LMH (60psi), and it can withstand 20,000 ppm.h NaClO solution cleaning. When the post treatment processes was adjusted, the salt rejection rate of NaCl solution (250 ppm) reached 45.5%, and the flux reached 62.2 LMH.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.161-172
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• 2015

Forward osmosis (FO) is an emerging membrane technology with potential applications in desalination and wastewater reclamation. The osmotic pressure gradient across the FO membrane is used to generate water flux. In this study, flux performance and foulant deposition on the FO membrane were systematically investigated with a co-current cross-flow membrane system. Sodium alginate (SA), bovine serum albumin (BSA) and tannic acid (TA) were used as model foulants. Organics adsorbed on the membrane were peeled off via oscillation and characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). When an initial flux of $8.42L/m^2h$ was applied, both flux reduction and foulant deposition were slight for the feed solution containing BSA and TA. In comparison, flux reduction and foulant deposition were much more severe for the feed solution containing SA, as a distinct SA cake-layer was formed on the membrane surface and played a crucial role in membrane fouling. In addition, as the initial SA concentration increased in FS, the thickness of the cake-layer increased remarkably, and the membrane fouling became more severe.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.193-201
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• 1999

The object of study were the development of membrane process and the optimization of operation condition for membrane system, which was used the pre-treatment system of tap water treatment in steady of conventional process such as coagulation, sedimentation. The higher steady flux is very important factor, by a suitable pre-treatment and optimization of operating condition such as fouling control, crossflow and backwashing method, in membrane system. So, we were observed the effect of flux decline for membrane used by 4 type ultrafiltration(UF) membrane pre-treatment process, and optimized the operation condition of filtration system under various MWCO(Molecular weight cut-off), operation pressure, linear velocity and temperature to maintain higher flux. From these experiment, we were identified that UF process showed a slower flux decline rate and a higher flux recovery than microfiltration(MF) membrane. The water quality of UF permeate was better than that of MF, and was not effected pre-treatment process. In the operation condition, the rate of flux decline was diminished by a higher linear velocity and operation temperature, lower pressure.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.23 no.A
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• pp.187-191
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• 2003

A hollow-fiber type polysulfone UF membrane was surface-coated with hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA). The effect of various coating parameters on permeation flux, such as concentration ratio of AIBN/HEMA, solvent(water or methanol), and UV irradiation time, was investigated. The water permeation flux of oil-emulsion increased with concentration ratio of AIBN/HEMA, and increased with UV irradiation time. The flux of the membrane coated in solution using methanol as a solvent was greater than that of the membrane coated in solution using water as a solvent. The flux of both the coated and the uncoated membrane declined with the operation. The flux decline means that the membrane fouling by oil-emulsion occurs. However, the fouling of the coated membrane was much less than that of the uncoated membrane.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.65-73
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• 2021

Sponge ball cleaning can generate an abrasion effect, which leads to an attractive increasing in both permeate flux and membrane rejection. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of the daily sponge ball cleaning (SBC) on the performance of different UF cross-flow membrane modules integrated with a bioreactor. Two 1"-membrane modules and one 1/2"-membrane module were tested. The parameters measured and controlled are temperature, pH, viscosity, particle size, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total suspended solids (TSS), and permeate flux. The permeate flux could be improved by 60%, for some modules, after 11 days of daily sponge ball cleaning at a transmembrane pressure of 350 kPa and a flow velocity of 4 m/s. Rejection values of all tested modules were improved by 10%. The highest permeate flux of 195 L/㎡.h was achieved using a 1"-membrane module with the aid of its negatively charged membrane material and the daily sponge ball cleaning. In addition, the enhancement in the permeate flux caused by daily sponge ball cleaning improved the energy specific demand for all tested modules. The negatively charged membrane showed the lowest energy specific demand of 1.31 kWh/㎥ in combination with the highest flux, which is a very competitive result.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.51-62
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• 2022

Vacuum-assisted air gap membrane distillation (V-AGMD) has the potential to achieve higher flux and productivity than conventional air gap membrane distillation (AGMD). Nevertheless, there is not much information on technical aspects of V-AGMD operation. Accordingly, this study aims to analyze the effect of membrane deformation on flux in V-AGMD operation. Experiments were carried out using a bench-scale V-AGMD system. Statistical models were applied to understand the flux behaviors. Statistical models based on MLR, GNN, and MLFNN techniques were developed to describe the experimental data. Results showed that the flux increased by up to 4 times with the application of vacuum in V-AGMD compared with conventional AGMD. The flux in both AGMD and V-AGMD is affected by the difference between the air gap pressure and the saturation pressure of water vapor, but their dependences were different. In V-AGMD, the membranes were found to be deformed due to the vacuum pressure because they were not fully supported by the spacer. As a result, the deformation reduced the effective air gap width. Nevertheless, the rejection and LEP were not changed even if the deformation occurred. The flux behaviors in V-AGMD were successfully interpreted by the GNN and MLFNN models. According to the model calculations, the relative impact of the membrane deformation ranges from 10.3% to 16.1%.

• Korean Membrane Journal
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.43-49
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• 1999

Separation of soluble oil was investigated during filtration of cutting oil emulsion using various commercial ultrafiltration membranes. The surface properties of membranes used were hydrophilic hydrophobic and modified surfaces by various surfactant pretreatments. Conditions varied include stirring speed transmeembrane pressure membrane type and surfactant type for pretreatment. The results give some indication of mechanisms occurring at the membrane surface. Surfactant pretreatments significantly improved water flux and UF flux of hydrophilic regenerated cellulose(up to 2.4x for YM100) and hydrophobic polysulfone (up to 2.2x for PTHK) membranes depending on surfactant type and operating conditions. The UF flux enhancement was attributed to membrane swelling and reduction of interfacial surface tension between oil droplets and membrane surface. unexpectedly the hydrophilic membranes revealed greater flux enhancement than the hydrophobic membranes. The results also showed a greater improvement in UF flux at lower operating pressure.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.21-27
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• 2013

The present study explored the way to desalinate seawater for agricultural irrigation using forward osmosis (FO) process using liquid fertilizer as draw solution. FO experiments were performed in a cross flow mode using flat sheet FO membrane. The effect of membrane orientation, flow rate, and draw solution concentration on the performance of forward osmosis was investigated by measuring water flux of forward osmosis membrane. The water flux when the draw solution was placed against the membrane active layer was lower than the water flux when the feed solution was placed against the membrane active layer. This results indicated that the decrease of effective osmotic pressure by dilutive internal concentration polarization was less than that by concentrative internal concentration polarization. Increasing flow rate from 66.7 to 133.1 $cm^3$/min resulted in increase of the water flux when the membrane active layer orient to draw solution and feed solution, respectively. The reduction of resistance to water flow increased water flux at higher flow rate. The water flux of FO membrane increased with increasing draw solution concentration from 10000 to 30000 mg/L. The water flux for $KH_2PO_4$ draw solution was similar to that for commercial fertilizer. Optimization of FO process would contribute to economically desalinate brackish water for agricultural use.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.113-123
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• 2017

This study investigated effects of physical and chemical cleaning methods on the initial flux recovery of fouled membrane in membrane distillation process. A laboratory scale direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) experiment was performed to treat digested livestock wastewater with 3.89 mg/L suspended solids, 874.7 mg/L COD, 543.7 mg/L nitrogen, 15.6 mg/L total phosphorus, and pH of 8.6. A hydrophobic PVDF membrane with an average pore size of $0.22{\mu}m$ and a porosity of 75 % was installed inside a direct contact type membrane distillation module. The temperature difference between feed and permeate side was maintained at $40^{\circ}C$ with the feed and permeate stream velocity of 0.18 m/s. The results showed that the permeate flux decreased from $22.1L{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}hr^{-1}$ to $19.0L{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}hr^{-1}$ after 75 hours of distillation. The fouled membrane was cleaned first by physical flushing and consecutively by chemicals with NaOCl and citric acid. After the physical cleaning the flux was recovered to 92 % as compared with the initial clean water flux of the virgin membrane. Then 94 % of the flux was recovered after cleaning by 2,000 ppm NaOCl for 90 minutes and finally 97 % of flux recovered after 3 % citric acid for 90 minutes. SEM-EDS and FT-IR analysis results presented that the foulants on the membrane surface were removed effectively after each cleaning step. The contact angle measurement showed that the hydrophobicity of the membrane surface was also restored gradually after each cleaning step to reach nearly the same hydrophobicity level as the virgin membrane.