• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.637-643
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• 2006

The bench-scale chlorine exposure study was performed to investigate the effect of pretreatment by free chlorine and monochloramine ($NH_2Cl$) on the performance of RO membranes made of polyamide (PA). Feed monochloramination at 2mg/L did not cause significant productivity loss compared to free chlorine. However, metal coagulants reacted with monochloramine, the PA membrane suffered from a gradual loss of membrane integrity by chlorine oxidation, which was characterized as a decrease in salt rejection. Especially, RO membranes exposed to alum coagulants with monochloramine revealed the salt rejection lower than those exposed to iron coagulants. XPS membrane surface analysis demonstrated that the chlorine uptake on the membrane surface increased and carbon peaks were shifted significantly when exposed to alum coagulants with monochloramine.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.93-101
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• 2010

Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes have been widely used for desalination as well as water and wastewater treatment facilities. Cleaning process is important to maintain stable operation as well as prevention of membrane fouling. Purpose of this research is to analyze electrostatistic and chemical characteristics after cleaning of RO membrane against $SiO_2$ scale. Four RO membranes of polyamide are used and examined about effect of chemical cleaning. EDTA (ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid) and SDS (sodium dodecil sulfate) and NaOH are applied for cleaning process after operation in synthetic water. Then, cleaning was performed with chemicals such concentration as 6hr, 12hr and 24hr, respectively. As a result, transmittances of FT-IR of four membranes are compared at each cleaning concentration. Ta/Tv shows difference of chemical composition between new membrane and cleaning membrane after cleaning. Type B of RO membrane is turned out to be most vulnerable to cleaning among four membranes. In terms of zeta potential, new membrane has -16 mV to +6 mV on pH while scaled membrane has -18 mV to 2 mV. However, it changed -23mV to 0.9 mV after cleaning. In comparison with existing salt rejection of RO membranes after cleaning, the rejection of the membranes goes down 0.7% maximum. Though cleaning changes the characteristics of membrane surface, it does not greatly affect salt rejection. pH is a critical factor to flux change in PA (polyamide) membrane.