• 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.19 no.3
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• pp.312-317
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• 2005

The 15 month pilot study was performed to investigate the effect of pretreatment by monochloramine ($NH_2Cl$) on the performance of RO membranes made of cellulose acetate (CA) and polyamide (PA). Both RO membranes experienced severe biological fouling without any pretreatment during the treatment of highly organic surface water in Florida, USA. Feed monochloramination at 5 mg/L significantly minimized productivity loss by effective control of biofouling. The CA membrane did not show any structural damages by monochloramine, while the PA membrane suffered from a gradual loss of membrane integrity by chlorine oxidation, which was characterized as an increase in productivity and a decrease in selectivity. The degradation of PA membrane increased with increasing monochloramine dose.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.317-324
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• 2014

It is very well known that the conventional polyamide (PA) thin film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes have excellent permselective properties, but their chlorine tolerance is not good enough. In this study, to improve such chlorine tolerance, microporous membranes containing hydrophilic functional groups such as -COOH were used as a support to prepare PA TFC RO membranes, employing the conventional interfacial polymerization method. Meta-phenylene diamine (MPD) and 2,6-diamine toluene (2,6-DAT) were used as diamine monomers and tri-mesoyl chloride (TMC) as an acid monomer. The membranes prepared were characterized using various instrumental analytical methods and permeation test set-up. The flux obtained from the membranes prepared so was more than $1.0m^3/m^2day$ at 800 psi of operating pressure, while the salt rejection was over 99.0%. The chlorine tolerance of them was also found to be better than that of the membrane prepared by using conventional polysulfone support without hydrophilic functional groups.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.169-179
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• 2012

One of the major limitations in the use of commercial aromatic polyamide thin film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes is to maintain high performance over a long period of operation, due to the sensitivity of polyamide (PA) skin layer to oxidizing agents, such as chlorine, even at very low concentrations in feed water. This article reports surface modification of a commercial TFC RO membrane (BW30-Dow Filmtec) by covering it with a thin film of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) crosslinked with glutaraldehyde (GA) to improve its resistance to chlorine. Crosslinking reaction was carried out at 25 and $40^{\circ}C$ by using PVA 1.0 wt.% solutions at different GA/PVA mass ratio, namely 0.0022, 0.0043 and 0.013. Water swelling measurements indicated a maximum crosslinking density for PVA films prepared at $40^{\circ}C$ and GA/PVA 0.0043. ATR-FTIR and TGA analysis confirmed the reaction between GA and PVA. SEM images of the original and modified membranes were used to evaluate the surface coating. Chlorine resistance of original and modified membranes was evaluated by exposing it to an oxidant solution (NaClO 300 mg/L, NaCl 2,000 mg/L, pH 9.5) and measuring water permeability and salt rejection during more than 100 h period. The surface modification effectively was demonstrated by increasing the chlorine resistance of PA commercial membrane from 1,000 ppm.h to more than 15.000 ppm.h.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.7-12
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• 2004

Desalination system of revers osmosis(RO) membrane has been proven to be the most economical not only for the desalination of water containing salts, but also for the concentration of solute. RO membranes were traditionally made of inorganic polymers such. as cellulose acetate(CA), Polyamide(PA). To retain more minerals in deep ocean water, a new hybrid membrane composed of tourmaline film as organic material onto inorganic layer of CA polymer in asymmetric structure was developed for RO membrane process. The performance tests were carried out in the permeability of pure water and the rejection of NaCl solution to evaluate the adaptability for DOW desalination. The results of these basic tests show possibility to apply the new hybrid RO membrane for the desalination with function control.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.810-815
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• 2012

The cation exchange polymer, poly(styrene sulfonic acid) (PSSA), was coated onto polyamide (PA) thin film composite reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. Then these membranes were investigated for the model foulants, bovine serum albumin (BSA), humic acid (HA), and sodium alginate (SA) to check whether there are some improvement. The contact angle of PSSA coated PA RO membrane showed $58^{\circ}$ from $78^{\circ}$, the value of PA RO membrane, which confirmed successful hydrophilization. As the operating pressure increased (2, 4, 8 atm for BSA, HA and SA 100 ppm in feed solution), the fouling phenomena was worse for both none- and PSSA-coated membranes. The fouling increased in the order of BSA>SA>HA due to the interactions between sulfonic acid in PSSA and functional groups of foulants. On the other hand more significant fouling reduction was observed in the order of HA>SA>BSA. The photographs of scanning electron microscopy showed the same trend. As a result, there was the improvement of fouling phenomena for the PSSA coated RO membranes, distinctly in the case of HA.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.481-488
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• 2012

The anionic exchange polymer, poly(vinyl amine)(PVAm), was coated onto polyamide (PA) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes by using 'salting-out' method. The effects of the fouling phenomena for these PVAm coated membranes were investigated using the model foulants, bovine serum albumin (BSA), humic acid (HA), and sodium alginate (SA). The surface coating and the fouling phenomena were observed by the scanning electron microscopy. And the flux was measured for each 100 ppm of above foulant aqueous solution at the operating pressure, 2, 4, 8 bar. The PVAm-coated PA membranes showed somewhat fouling improvements and the fouling reduction was shown in the order of HA > SA > BSA, particularly HA case was distinct.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.272-279
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• 2012

The neutral polymer, poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA), was coated onto polyamide (PA) thin film composite reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. And then these membranes were investigated for the model foulants, bovine serum albumin (BSA), humic acid (HA), and sodium alginate (SA) whether there are aome improvement. As the operating pressure increased with 2, 4, 8 atm for BSA, HA and SA 100 ppm in feed solution, the fouling phenomena was worse for both none and PSSA coated membranes. The fouling occurred in the sequence of BSA > HA > SA due to the interactions between PVA snd functional groups of foulants, and on the other hand the fouling reduction was observed in the order of HA > BSA > SA. The observation of scanning electron microscopy photographs showed the same trend. As a result, there should be the improvement of fouling phenomena for the PVA coated RO membranes and the case of HA was shown distinct.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.453-462
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• 2014

Thin film composite (TFC) polyamide (PA) membranes were prepared on polyester (PET) nonwoven reinforced polysulfone supports for forward osmosis (FO) processes. PSF (polysulfone) supports were prepared via the phase inversion process from PSF casting solutions in dimethyl formamide (DMF) solvents (19 wt%) by using a PET nonwoven (thickness of $100{\mu}m$) as a mechanical reinforcing material for reverse osmosis (RO) membrane. The PSF support from 19 wt% of DMF/PSF casting solution showed sponge-like morphology and asymmetric internal structure. To reduce the internal concentration polarization in FO operation, thin ($20{\mu}m$ of thickness) nonwoven-supported PSF supports were prepared by using PSF/DMF casting solution (9~19 wt%). A desirable support structure with a highly porous sponge-like morphology were achieved from the thin nonwoven-supported PSF layer prepared with 9~12 wt% casting solution. A crosslinked aromatic polyamide layer was fabricated on top of each support to form a TFC PA membrane. The tested sample from 12 wt% of DMF/PSF casting solution presented outstanding FO performance, almost 5.5 times higher water flux (24.3 LMH) with low reverse salt flux (RDF, 1.5 GMH) compared to a thick nonwoven rainforced membrane (4.5 LMH of flux and 3.47 GMH of RSF). By reducing the thickness of the nonwoven and optimizing PSF concentration of casting solution, the morphology of the prepared membranes were changed from a dense structure to a porous sponge structure in the boundary area between nonwoven and PET support layer.