• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.70-75
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• 2016

The reuse of wastewater is being diffused to manage and develop the water resources. Generally, the treated wastewater is discharged to the river after being treated to meet the effluent quality standard or reused for diverse uses through the reprocessing. And recently, as the reuse of the treated wastewater is activated, the technologies to utilize for the high quality water resources such as industrial water by reusing the wastewater with Membrane Distillation (MD) are under development. In this study, the direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) process has been applied to treat sewage discharge water for water reuse. The laboratory scale experiment was performed by using a hydrophobic PVDF membrane with the pore size of $0.22{\mu}m$. The influence of operating parameters, such as feed temperature, feed flow rate, feed concentration, on the permeate flux and rejection has been investigated. All filtration tests were conducted till the feed volume reached a concentration factor of 3.0. Thus, the operating period ranged between 19 hr and 49 hr depending on filtration performance. The results showed that above 92% of TN, TP, COD and TOC in the feed could be rejected regardless of an operating condition. The water flux was ranged from 13.8 to 20.3 LMH. The lowest flux was obtained at the operating condition with the feed temperature of $50^{\circ}C$ and feed flow velocity of 500 mL/min while the highest one was measured with $60^{\circ}C$ and 900 mL/min. When the concentration factor reached 3.0, water flux declined by approximately ranged from 14.5% to 33.3%. But the fouling in MD is almost fully reversible, with more than 90% recovery of permeate water flux following a DI water rinse without the addition of chemical cleaning reagents.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.253-263
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• 2022

This study suggests a guideline for designing unit process of wastewater reuse in terms of a maintenance of the process based on critical parameters to draw a high quality performance of RO unit. Defining the parameters was done by applying membrane integrity test (MIT) in pretreatment process utilizing lab-scale MF. SDI is utilized for judging whether permeate is suitable to RO unit. However, result said TOC concentration matching with particle count analysis is better for judging the permeate condition. When membrane test pressure (P_test) was measured to derive log removal value in PDT, virgin state of membrane fiber was used to measure dynamic contact angle utilizing surface tension of the membrane fiber. Actually, foulant affects to the state of membrane surface, and it decreases the P_test value along with time elapsed. Consequently, LRV_DIT is also affected by P_test value. Thus, sensitivity of direct integrity test descends with result of P_test value change, so P_test value should be considered not the virgin state of the membrane but its current state. Overall, this study focuses on defining design parameters suitable to MF pretreatment for RO process in wastewater reuse by assessing its impact. Therefore, utilities can acknowledge that the membrane surface condition must be considered when users conduct the direct integrity test so that P_test and other relative parameter used to calculate LRV_DIT are adequately measured.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.429-436
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• 2008

Membrane system has been increasingly considered as a safe and cost-effective water treatment process especially in case of small scale water works. This research is a basis of membrane application in water works through a long period test with obtaining operation skills and evaluation of water quality and cost competitiveness. For the research, the UF membrane system was installed in small water treatment plant that uses river-bed water as raw water. The system was consisted of 2 stage membrane and operated in constant flow mode (Flux: 1.5, 1.0, 0.9, 0.6). In each different flux condition, TMP trends were showed better results at lower flux condition. And through the high flux condition test, it is certified that membrane system could deal with breakdown of one stage. Water quality of permeate was satisfied the water quality standards especially turbidity. To know what mainly causes fouling on membrane, the test by membrane with several cleaning agents and EDX analysis have done in lab. Through the tests, ferrous concentration in raw water, backwashing water and membrane surface etc. was high and it causes fouling inside and outside of membrane. So acid cleaning using organic acid such as oxalic acid is necessary in Chemical in Place (CIP). At the economical aspect the electrical cost of membrane system is higher than that of slow sand filtration but labor cost can be reduced by automation. However, the use of labor should be determined considering effectiveness and stability of operation. Because during the operation, there are several breakdown such as electrical shock by lightning, water drop in summer, etc.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.473-480
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• 2020

High-pressure membrane system like nanofiltration(NF) and reverse osmosis(RO) was investigated as a part of water treatment processes to produce high quality potable water with low organic matter concentration through membrane module tests and design simulation. River water and sand filtration permeate in Busan D water treatment plant were selected as feed water, and NE4040-90 and RE4040-Fen(Toray Chemical Korea) were used as NF and RO membranes, respectively. Total organic carbon(TOC) concentrations of NF and RO permeates were mostly below 0.5 mg/l and the average TOC removal rates of NF and RO membranes were 93.99% and 94.28%, respectively, which means NF used in this study is competitive with RO in terms of organic matter removal ability. Different from ions rejection tendency, the TOC removal rate increases at higher recovery rates, which is because the portion of higher molecular weight materials in the concentrated raw water with increasing recovery rate increases. Discharge of NF/RO concentrates to rivers may not be acceptable because the increased TDS concentration of the concentrates can harm the river eco-system. Thus, the idea of using NF/RO concentrate as the raw water for industrial water production was introduced. The design simulation results with feed water and membranes used in this work reveal that the raw water guideline can be satisfied if the recovery rate of NF/RO system is designed below 80%.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.38-46
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• 2005

In this research, we tried to combine the coagulation/sedimentation process as pre-treatment with UF membrane filtration to reduce the membrane fouling and to improve the permeate water quality. We used the Jet Mixed Separator (JMS) as coagulation/sedimentation process. We observed that the HPC and E.Coli can't be removed through the direct UF memebrane filtation of surface water. The removal efficiency of dissolved organic substances, indicated by E260 and DOC, was 40% and 15%, respectively. However, the removal efficiency of it increased two time as a result of combination of JMS process as coagulation/sedimentation pre-treatment. This was resulted from the formation of high molecular humic micro-floc through JMS process. The accumulation amount of irreversible cake layer which was not removed by backwashing was less than direct UF membrane filtration of surface water. Moreover, the loading rate of fouling induced substances, such as humic substances and suspended substances, on membrane surface decreased drastically through JMS process. As a result, the accumulation amount of irreversible cake on membrane surface was decreased.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.79-86
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• 2008

In Korea, most of the drinking water treatment relied upon the availability of the surface water, of which the raw water quality varied significantly by season and location. Therefore, the comparison of two operation modes (Pressurized type and Submerged type membrane system) must be estimated before the long-term establishment of two systems. In this study, two pilot-scale microfiltration systems with the capacity of $50m^3/day$ were installed and operated in two different modes, and the applicability of the system was determined based on the results such as the TMP (Trans-Membrane Pressure) and flux. For quantitatively comparing the two systems, a new concept, DRF (Differential Resistance Fraction) was introduced. The accumulated sum of the permeate after each cycle of chemical cleaning was also used as a tool for the system comparison.

• Korean Membrane Journal
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.50-57
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• 2006

We treated lake water by ceramic ultrafiltration membranes and found the optimal backflushing period and trans-membrane pressure (TMP) of periodic water-backflushing system. The optimal filtration time interval at fixed BT = 3 sec was 30 for A002 membrane in all viewpoints of $J/J_0,\;R_f$, and $V_T$, and we could acquire the highest $V_T$ value in the membranes used here. However, the highest $V_T$ was acquired at FT = 60 sec for M9, and at FT = 90 sec for C005 membrane. Then the lower TMP reduced the membrane fouling during filtration of lake water, and could maintain the higher permeate flux compared with the initial flux. However, the largest value $V_T$ could be obtained at the highest TMP condition for M9 membrane at fixed FT = 60 sec and BT = 3 sec. The quality of treated water in our UF ceramic system was Turbidity = $0.20{\sim}4.88NTU$, $COD_{Mn} = 0.00{\sim}2.58 mg/L$, $TDS = l8{\sim}71 mg/L$, and $NH_3-N = 0.004{\sim}1.689 mg/L$.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.327-334
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• 2016

The effects of dissolved inorganic and organic matter in seawater and the characteristics of fouling on the membrane surface were investigated within membrane distillation (MD) process. The changes of the membrane flux of PE and PVDF hollow fiber membranes under natural and synthetic seawater were compared with given variances of temperature. The flux of both membranes under the synthetic seawater, without any organic matter, were higher than that of the natural seawater, indicating the organic fouling on the membrane surface. The surface of the membrane was analyzed using scanning electron microscope (SEM) to examine the fouling. The experiment with organics has shown the formation of thin film over the membrane surface, while the experiment with inorganics has shown only the formation of inorganic crystals. The results indicated the organic matter as the major foulants and that the organics affected the formation of the crystals. Permeate water conductivity of all conditions verified the quality of the water to be better if not similar to that of RO.

• 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.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.15-26
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• 2015

The compact structure and high-quality effluent of membrane bioreactors make them well-suited for decentralized greywater reclamation. However, the occurrence of membrane fouling continues to limit their effectiveness. To address this concern, a unique membrane module configuration was developed for use in a decentralized greywater treatment system. The module featured local aeration directly below a series of inclined membrane bundles, giving the overall module a twisted appearance compared to a module with vertically orientated fibres. The intent of this design was to increase the frequency and intensity of collisions between rising air bubbles and the membrane surface. Material related to the construction of custom-fit modules is rarely communicated. Therefore, detailed design and assembly procedures were provided in this paper. The twisted module was compared to two commercially available modules with diverse specifications in order to assess the relative performance and marketability of the twisted module with respect to existing products. Contaminant removal efficiencies were determined in terms of biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, ammonia, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and turbidity for each module. Membrane fouling was monitored in terms of permeate flux, transmembrane pressure, and membrane resistance. Following 168 h of operation, the twisted module configuration demonstrated competitive performance, indicating good potential for further development and commercialization.