• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.197-206
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• 2006

This study evaluated the effect of ultrasonic irradiation on improving the flux and cleaning efficiency in membrane process which is widely applied for the treatment of landfill leachate. The experiments on improvement of membrane flux according to the types of membranes(hallowfiber microfiltration, MF and tubular ultrafiltration, UF) were performed with changing frequency($40{\sim}120$ kHz), intensity ($200{\sim}500$ W) and irradiation time of ultrasound as well us operation pressure($0.1{\sim}2.3kg/cm^2$). Membrane was fouled for the first 50 min with primary treated leachate and then the change in flux according to ultrasonic irradiation period was observed for 70 min. Parameters influenced to the recovery ratio corresponding the net flux on pure water and to the enhancement ratio applied after ultrasonic irradiation on the flux were analyzed. In same condition, the flux was improved in proportion to ultrasonic intensity while the improvement of flux was inversely proportional to ultrasonic frequency. The cleaning effect of membrane was delayed and reduced when operation pressure of membrane was high. The recovery ratio and enhancement ratio for $0.1{\mu}m$ MF membrane were 10% and 500%, respectively while those were maximized at $75{\sim}98%\;and\;40{\sim}50%$ for UF membrane for 10,000 and 100,000 MWCO, respectively. In conclusion, it was confirmed that ultrasonic cleaning using mechanical vibration is alternative to water or chemical cleaning for improving membrane flux.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.243-250
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• 2012

The effect of water back-flushing period (filtration time, FT) was investigated in hybrid process of alumina microfiltration and photocatalyst for advanced drinking water treatment in this study, and compared with the previous studies with carbon microfiltration or alumina ultrafiltration membranes. The FT was changed in the range of 2~10 min with fixed 10 sec of BT. Then, the FT effects on resistance of membrane fouling ($R_f$), permeate flux (J) and total permeate volume ($V_T$) were observed during total filtration time of 180 min. As decreasing FT, $R_f$ decreased and J increased as decreasing FT, which was same with the previous results with carbon microfiltration or alumina ultrafiltration membranes. The treatment efficiency of turbidity was high beyond 98.1%, and the effect of FT was not shown on treatment efficiency of turbidity, which was same with the previous result of carbon microfiltration. The treatment efficiency of organic matters was the highest value of 89.6 % at FT 8 min, which was a little higher than those of the previous results, and the effect of FT was not shown on treatment efficiency of organic matters.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.588-597
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• 2004

In this research, we investigated the variation of transmembrane pressure and permeate water quality with pre coagulation and sedimentation with iron based coagulant and chlorination of feed water for PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) based MF membrane filtration. NaCIO was fed to the membrane module with dosage of 0.5mg/L and maintained during filtration. To observe the effect of raw water, three types of raw and processed waters, including river surface water, coagulated water and coagulated-settled water, were applied. In case of river surface water, the transmembrane pressure increased drastically in 500 hours of operation. On the contrary, no significant increase in transmembrane pressure was observed for 1,200 hours of operation for coagulated water and coagulated-settled waters. The turbidity of permeate was lower than a detection limit of equipment for all raw waters. The removal efficiency of humic substances of coagulated water and coagulated-settled water was approximate ten times of that of surface river water. And, the removal efficiency of TOC and DOC was approximate two times of that of surface river water. From the results of plant operation, stable operation was maintained at $0.9m^3/m^2{\cdot}day$ filtration flux through the combination of pre-coagulation and pre-chlorination. However, the water quality of permeate was the best when pre-coagulation-sedimentation process was combined with pre-chlorination.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.149-156
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• 2004

This work focused on the degradation of natural organic matter (NOM) present in lake water using a combined pkotocatalysisimicrofiltration (MF) process. The system performances were investigated in terms of organic removal efficiency and membrane permeability. The addition of iron oxide particles (IOP) into the photocatalytic membrane reactor improved initial NOM removal by sorption, but during photocatalysis the removal efficiency was reversed, probably due to the scattering of UV light by IOP. The modification of TiO$_2$ surfaces by IOP deposition was conducted to enhance the photocatalytic NOM removal efficiency. A minimal amount of Impregnation of IOP on TiO$_2$ surfaces was required to prevent the light scattering effect as well. The coating of MF membranes with IOP helped to improve the NOM removal efficiency while sorbing NOM by IOP. Regardless of tile operating conditions and particles addition examined, no significant fouling was occurring at a flux of 15 L/$m^2$-h during entire MF operation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.892-899
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• 2005

Groundwater is naturally of excellent microbiological qualify and generally of adequate quality for drinking water use. However, recently, the impact of urbanization and intensification of agricultural production have led to serious deterioration in groundwater quality. The representative SOCs used in this study were trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE). Powdered activated carbon (PAC) is widely used for SOCs removal. The overall goal of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of using a hybrid use of PAC-UF and PAC-MF processes for treating groundwater contaminated with TCE and PCE. The results show that the flux decline rate was lower for the PAC-UF or PAC-MF process than for UF or MF only process. Therefore, applying PAC before UF or MF membrane filtration showed not only enhancing the removal of TCE and PCE, but also reducing membrane fouling.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.1369-1373
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• 2009

Succinic acid was produced by continuous fermentation of Actinobacillus succinogenes sp. 130Z in an external membrane cell recycle reactor to improve viable cell concentration and productivity. Using this system, cell concentration increased to 16.4 g/l at the dilution rate $0.2\;h^{-1}$, up to 3 times higher than that of batch culture, and the volumetric productivity of succinic acid increased up to 6.63 g/l/h at the dilution rate $0.5\;h^{-1}$, 5 times higher than that of batch fermentation. However, in the continuous culture using a high dilution rate, operational problems including severe membrane fouling and contamination by lactic acid producer were observed. Another succinic acid producer, Mannheimia succiniciproducens MBEL55E, was also utilized in this system, and the cell concentration and productivity of succinic acid at the dilution rate of $0.3\;h^{-1}$ were found to be above 3 and 2.3 times higher, respectively, compared with those obtained at the dilution rate of $0.1\;h^{-1}$. These observations give a deep insight into the process design for a continuous succinic acid production by microorganisms.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.200-205
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• 2013

Pretreatment process is the critical step of RO (Reverse Osmosis) membrane desalination plant in order to prevent RO membrane fouling. The pretreatment as a key component of RO process must be designed to produce a constant and high quality RO feedwater which has low silt density index (SDI). This experiment was conducted to assess parameters affecting SDI value, such as pH, seawater turbidity, temperature, and coagulant dose. The experimental results indicated that the source seawater turbidity did cause little effects on SDI values of filtered water. The 0.45 um hydrophilic membrane was more appropriate than the hydrophobic membrane for measuring SDI. The SDI value was increased with decreasing pH under the condition of below pH 7.0. In addition, the water temperature significantly affected the SDI values, showing higher SDI value with lower water temperature.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.285-290
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• 2009

The permeation experiments were carried out for the nominal pore size $0.1\;{\mu}m$ and 5 mm inner diameter microfiltration tubular membrane equipped with self-designed discharging rod in order to determine the effect of fouling reduction. Dioctyl tinoxide (DOTO) latex particle was used to prepare up to 0.5 wt% concentration of feed solution, and the experiments were operated within 1.6 bar. The permeation flux effect on the discharged rod was measured as a result of flux comparison between the cases of equipped and non-equipped discharge rod modules for every experiment. The permeation flux for the case using the discharged rod was enhanced to 20% at 1.6 bar operating pressure. The improvement on permeation flux for using the discharged rod was greater as the concentration of feed increased, and reached up to 43% under 0.5 wt% concentration of feed solution.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.342-349
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• 2000

Hollow fiber membranes were prepared via thermally-induced phase separation process followed by stretching process from isotactic polypropylene and soybean oil system. Various operating parameters were examined in terms of their effects on the structure variation and performances of the membrane, and were optimized. Melt viscosity of the melt sample had influence on the formation of the microfibrils, and addition of nucleating agent increased the nucleation density to enhance the interspherulitic pore formation by stretching. Annealing the membrane at its stretched state relaxed the stress induced by stretching and helped the membrane maintain the stretched structure without shrinking. Solid-liquid Phase separation is more prevalent when the nucleating agent was added, and coagulation bath temperature determined the nucleation density, which affected the pore formation by stretching. In the absence of nucleating agent, nucleation was not effective and liquid-liquid phase separation governed the structure formation, which showed the opposite trend to that of the case with nucleating agent.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.411-421
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• 2017

Forward osmosis (FO) is an emerging technology which can possibly make the desalination process more cost and energy efficient. One of the major factors impeding its growth is the lack of an appropriate draw solute. The present study deals with the identification of potential draw solutes, and rank them. The comparison was carried out among ten draw solutes on the basis of four main parameters namely; water flux, reverse salt diffusion, flux recovery and cost. Each draw solute was given three 24 hour runs; corresponding to three different concentrations; and their flux and reverse salt diffusion values were calculated. A fresh membrane was used every time except for the fourth time which was the flux recovery experiment conducted for the lowest concentration and the change of flux and reverse salt diffusion values from the initial run was noted. The organic solutes inspected were urea and tartaric acid which showed appreciable values in other parameters viz. reverse salt diffusion, flux recovery and cost although they generated a lower flux. They ranked 5th and 8th respectively. All the experimented draw solutes were ranked based on their values corresponding to each of the four main parameters chosen for comparison and Ammonium sulfate was found to be the best draw solute.