• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1991.04a
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• pp.9-9
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• 1991

This paper will begin by describing osmosis and how reverse osmosis works. It will show how osmotic pressure affects reverse osmosis operations. It uill explain salt rejection, membrane flux, and recovery rates and the affect that salt built up has on membrane performance. It wil 1 explain the limitations of RO performance and why pretreatment is important. It will describe the two basic types of membrane, asymmetric and thin-film composite and explain the difference between these types plus compare cellulose acetate types to aromatic polyamide type membranes. It will discuss operating efficiences as it compares to feedwater pressure, concentration, temperature and pH. Finally, it will discuss the differences between tubular, plate and frame, hollow fiber and spiral wound element design. It will be a paper that talks about the basics of RO systems and should give a person who is unfamiliar with RO a basic introduction to this type of separation technology.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2016

Membrane bioreactor (MBR) and reverse osmosis (RO) membrane system was applied to the treatment and reclamation of textile wastewater in Thailand. An experiment was carried out to determine the fouling behavior and effect of anti-scalant and biocide addition to flux decline and its recovery through chemical cleaning. The RO unit was operated for one month after which the fouled membranes were cleaned by sequential chemical cleaning method. RO flux was found rapidly declined during initial period and only slightly decreased further in long-term operation. The main foulants were organic compounds and thus sequential cleaning using alkaline solution followed by acid solution was found to be the most effective method. The provision of anti-scalant and biocide in feed-water could not prevent deposition of foulant on the membrane surface but helped improving the membrane cleaning efficiencies.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.811-823
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• 2009

Seawater desalination process using a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane has been considered as one of the most promising technologies in solving the water scarcity problems in many arid regions around the world. To protect RO membrane in the process, a thorough understanding of the pretreatment process is particularly needed. Seawater organic matters (SWOMs) may form a gel layer on the membrane surface, which will increase a concentration polarization. As the SWOMs can be utilized as a substrate, membrane biofouling will be progressed on the RO membrane surface, resulting in the flux decline and increase of trans-membrane pressure drop and salt passage. In the middle of disinfection, an optimal chlorine dosage and neutralizer (sodium bisulfite, SBS) should be practiced to prevent oxidizing the surface of RO membranes. Additional fundamental research including novel non-susceptible biofouling membranes would be necessary to provide a guide line for the proper pretreatment process.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.232-239
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• 2017

In this study, the regeneration investigation for waste reverse osmosis membrane filters which were discarded after use for the household water purifiers has been carried out. Sodium hydroxide, sodium bisulfate, and ethylenediamine tetra acetic acid(EDTA). as the chemical cleaning agents were used. And they were in-situ cleaned with the micro-bubble generator as well. The best result was obtained when both 0.1% EDTA and micro-bubbles were used for 30 min cleaning. Thus, when the performance of the brand new RO membrane and restorated RO membrane were compared, the flux, 19.9%, the recovery ratio 45% were enhanced while the salt rejection was reduced for NaCl 100 mg/L solution, in other words, it has been recovered to the original brand new RO membrane filter. Also the removal of pollutants on membrane surface was confirmed in a naked eye through the scanning electron microscopy. Finally, this research has provided the possibility of the re-use of the waste RO membrane filters of household water purifier which were reclaimed or incinerated after use.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.131-142
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• 2003

Cylindrical rotating reverse osmosis (RO) is a means of dynamic filtration that incorporates both high shear and flow instabilities to reduce membrane fouling. This article summarizes recent works on rotating RO including the physics of rotating filtration; mass - transfer and concentration polarization; theoretical and experimental analysis; and some case studies.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.28-40
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• 2002

The primary objective of this study is to elucidate the contribution of the electrostatic and molecula structural properties of an active layer of the thin film compsite (TFC) membranes to fouling tendency. The studies of surface morphology and surface charge were very effective in understanding fouling behaviors of the reverse osmosis (RO) membranes which were the thin film composite type of ployamide. Results of microscopic morphology analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and surface charge analyzed by electrokinetic analyzer (EKA) showed important factors affecting the fouling of RO membranes. The active layer of the composite membrane possessing realtively neutral streaming charge and less roughness provided a RO membrane with slowly decreasing flux.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.220-229
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• 2000

Deionized water and wastewater flux were discussed using module set 1-7 composed of ultrafiltration hollow fiber type modules and reverse osmosis spiral wound type modules. The separation characteristics of ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis membranes were discussed with the variation of applied pressure and temperature. Turbidity and SS were removed effectively from ultrafiltration mem¬brane, and removal efficiency of COD, T-N, and TDS using reverse osmosis membrane was very efficient. Permeate flux increased linearly with the increase of applied pressures and temperature. It was shown that ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis membranes were suitable Lo the advanced treatment and reuse of oil refinery process effluent.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.39-49
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• 2022

Seawater desalination is doubtlessly a viable option to supply fresh drinking water. Nevertheless, RO (reverse osmosis) desalination plants in specific areas may be intermittently operated to match the imbalance between water demand and supply. Although a handful of works have been done on other membrane systems, few studies have attempted to mitigate fouling in intermittent RO systems. Accordingly, the objectives of this paper were to examine the effect of the intermittent operation on RO fouling; and to compare four intermittent operation modes including feed solution recirculation, membrane storage in the feed solution, deionized water (DI) recirculation, and membrane storage in DI water. Results showed that intermittent operation reduced RO fouling under several conditions. However, the extents of fouling mitigation were different depending on the feed conditions, foulant types, and membrane lay-up methods. When the feed solution was recirculated during the lay-up, the restoration of the flux was less significant than that by the feed solution feed-up. The use of deionized water during the lay-up was effective to restore flux, especially when the feed solution contains scale-forming salts (CaSO₄) and/or colloidal silica.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.239-244
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• 2019

Plating wastewater containing various heavy metals can be produced by several industries. Specifically, we focused on the removal of copper (Cu2+) and nickel (Ni+) ions from the plating wastewater because all these ions are strictly regulated when discharged into watershed in Korea. The application of both nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) technologies for the treatment of wastewater containing copper and nickel ions to reduce fresh water consumption and environmental degradation was investigated. In this work, the removal of copper (Cu2+) and nickel (Ni+) ions from synthetic water was studied on pilot scale remove by before using two commercial nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis(RO) spiral-wound membrane modules (NE2521-90 and RE2521-FEN by Toray Chemical). The influence of main operating parameters such as feed concentration on the heavy metals rejection and permeate flux of both membranes, was investigated. Synthetic plating wastewater samples containing copper ($Cu^{2+}$) and nickel ($Ni^{2+}$) ions at various concentrations(1, 20, 100, 400 mg/L) were prepared and subjected to treatment by NF and RO in the pilot plant. The results showed that NF, RO process, with 98% and 99% removal for copper and nickel, respectively, could achieve high removal efficiency of the heavy metals.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1991.10a
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• pp.9-16
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• 1991

The current status of reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration membranes are reviewed with the view for the future. In the case of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, as examples, new crosslinked aromatic polyamide membranes exhibited the superior separation performance with the sufficient water permeability, the high tolerance for oxidizing agents and chemicals. Ultrafiltration (UF) membrane based on poly(phenylene sulfide sulfone) (PPSS) also exibited the superior separation performance with the high solvent, heat and fouling resistance.