• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.255-268
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• 2016

Climate change has increased the need to secure a new water resource in addition to the traditional water resources such as surface water and ground water. The seawater desalination market is growing sharply in accordance with this situation in Korea, "seawater engineering & architecture of high efficiency reverse osmosis (SEAHERO)" program was launched in 2007 to keep pace with world market trend. SEAHERO program was completed in 2014, contributed to turn the domestic technology in evaporative desalination technology to RO desalination technology. Currently, it is investigated that the average specific energy consumption of the whole RO plant is around $3.5kWh/m^3$. The Busan Gi-jang plant has shown $3.7{\sim}4.0kWh/m^3$, including operational electricity for plant and maintenance building. Although not world top level, domestic RO technology is considered to be able to compete in desalination market. Separately, many researchers in the world are developing new technologies for energy savings. Various processes, forward osmosis (FO), membrane distillation (MD) process are expected to compete with RO in the future market. In Korea, FO-RO hybrid process, MD and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) process are under development through the research program in Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT). The desalination technology level is expected to decrease to $2.5kWh/m^3$.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.115-125
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• 2020

This study was aimed to examine inorganic fouling and fouling reduction method in direct contact membrane distillation(DCMD) process. Synthetic seawater of NaCl solution with CaCO₃ and CaSO₄ was used for this purpose. It was found in this study that both CaCO₃ and CaSO₄ precipitates formed at the membrane surface. More fouling was observed with CaSO₄(anhydrite) and CaSO₄·0.5H₂O(bassanite) than CaSO₄·2H₂O(gypsum). CaCO₃ and gypsum were detected at the membrane surface when concentrates of SWRO(seawater reverse osmosis) were treated by the DCMD process, while gypsum was found with MED(multi effect distillation) concentrates. Air backwash(inside to out) was found more effective in fouling reduction than air scouring.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.07a
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• pp.1-12
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• 2002

Desalination by reverse osmosis (RO), which first entered commercial use in the 1970s, was initially mainly used for treating brackish water. Technological progress led to the development of an RO membrane enabling single-pass seawater desalination. Toyobo succeeded in developing a single-pass seawater desalination RO module composed of hollow fiber type membranes made of cellulose triacetate in 1978, and then in 1979 began production of the first commercially available double-element module. This double-element module has many advantages suitable for seawater desalination. It has high chlorine tolerance and high salt rejection, derived from the properties of the membrane material, and it is highly resistant to fouling and scaling matters due to the unique flow pattern and fiber bundle configuration. These advantages help to explain why the Toyobo double-element module has been used so successfully at the many seawater desalination plants around the world. Since the 1980s, large plants capable of desalinating several tens of thousands of cubic meters a day have sprung up around the Mediterranean and In the Middle East. The Jeddah RO Phase I Plant, which has a capacity of 56, 800m$^3$/day, went into operation in 1989. In 1994, the same sized Phase II Plant came on stream, giving the plant a huge total capacity of 113, 600m$^3$/day. The plant constructor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), and the RO membrane manufacturer Toyobo Co., Ltd. In 1998, the world's largest RO seawater desalination plant in operation, which has a capacity of 128, 000m$^3$/day and is run by Saudi Arabia's Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), went into operation at Yanbu. RO seawater desalination technology has thus already reached the stage of full-scale commercial use. In order to encourage its wider use, however, RO desalination needs to be made more economical by lowering construction and water treatment costs. Toyobo has therefore developed a new economical RO desalination system by a recovery ratio of 60% using a high-pressure module with a high product flow rate. In 2000, Toyobo high recovery membrane module was selected for the largest seawater desalination plant in Japan, which has a capacity of 50, 000m$^3$/day.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.169-179
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• 2017

This study was conducted to supply information that can be utilized as data for desalination plant construction in the future by estimating unit cost of water production in the potential site of Incheon, Daesan, Yeosu, Busan, Ulsan and Sokcho in Korea. The production costs in Sokcho and Ulsan were similar to those of Busan and Yeosu. Those four sites showed better economic range due to low construction cost for intake facility compared to Incheon and Daesan. Although the salinity measured in the above 6 sites did not show perceptible effect on the production cost, the difference of seasonal seawater temperature needs to be considered due to the change of flux in reverse osmosis (RO) membrane. It turned out that the most critical parameters are the amortization in a year by the analysis of life cycle and the capacity of plant. Incheon and Daesan showed the difference of production cost up to 29% at the condition of amortization in 25 year, and up to 22% depending on plant capacity. However, the production cost in this study did not take into account of other indirect costs, therefore, this should be considered as the minimum cost.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.279-292
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• 2017

This study was aimed at ultrafiltration (UF) as a pretreatment before reverse osmosis (RO) within the scheme of hybrid reverse osmosis-multistage flush (RO-MSF) desalination. Seawater at elevated temperature (after MSF heat-exchangers) was used as a feed in this process. The pretreatment system was represented as a set of functionally-linked technological segments such as: UF filtration, backwashing, chemical- enhanced backwashing, cleaning, waste disposal, etc. The process represents the sequences of operating cycles. The cycle, in turn, consists of the following unit operations: filtration, backwashing and chemical-enhanced backwashing (CEB). Quantitative assessment was based on the following indicators: normalized permeability, transmembrane pressure, specific energy and water consumption, specific waste generation. UF pre-treatment is accompanied by the following waste streams: $W1=1.19{\times}10$ power of $-2m^3$ (disposed NaOCl with 0.0044% wt.)/$m^3$ (filtrate); $W2=5.95{\times}10$ power of $-3m^3$ (disposed $H_2SO_4$ with 0.052% wt.)/$m^3$(filtrate); $W3=7.26{\times}10$ power of $-2m^3$ (disposed sea water)/$m^3$ (filtrate). Specific energy consumption is $1.11{\times}10$ power of $-1kWh/m^3$ (filtrate). The indicators evaluated over the cycles with conventional (non-chemical) backwashing were compared with the cycles accompanied by CEB. A positive impact of CEB on performance indicators was demonstrated namely: normalized UF resistance remains unchanged within the regime accompanied by CEB, whereas the lack of CEB results in 30% of its growth. Those quantitative indicators can be incorporated into the target function for solving different optimization problems. They can be used in the software for optimisation of operating regimes or in the synthesis of optimal flow- diagram. The cycle characteristics, process parameters and water quality data are attached.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.506-511
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• 1999

The pilot system for radioactive liquid laundry waste was developed with treatment capacity, 1ton/hr and set up in the Yong Kwang unit #4. The system is composed of tank module, RO systems and a UV/$H_2O$$_2$photo-oxidation unit. The RO system consists of the BW unit (low-pressure RO for brackish water desalination) and the SW unit (high-pressure RO for seawater desalination). The BW unit possesses 4 RO membranes and it can reduce the feed water volume down to 1/10. This concentrated feed water can be reduced again up to 1/10 in its volume in the SW unit composed of 4 RO membranes. The UV/$H_2O$$_2$ photo-oxidation process unit was used for the detergent degradation. The operation of the pilot system was carried out and verified in its capability through the continuous operation and concentration operation using the actual liquid waste from the power plant. The design criteria and data for industrialization were yielded. The efficiency of the UV/$H_2O$$_2$ photo-oxidation process and the optimum operational procedure were evaluated. The decontamination factors for radioactive cobalt and cesium were measured. This on-site test showed the experimental result in the DF$\geq$300 and volume reduction factor$\geq$100.

• Journal of Applied Reliability
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.114-121
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• 2018

Purpose: This study proposes a process for evaluating the preventive maintenance policy for a system with degradation characteristics and for calculating the appropriate preventive maintenance cycle using time- and condition-based maintenance. Methods: First, the collected data is divided into the maintenance history lifetime and degradation lifetime, and analysis datasets are extracted through preprocessing. Particle filter algorithm is used to estimate the degradation lifetime from analysis datasets and prior information is obtained using LSE. The suitability and cost of the existing preventive maintenance policy are each evaluated based on the degradation lifetime and by using a minimum repair block replacement model of time-based maintenance. Results: The process is applied to the degradation of the reverse osmosis (RO) membrane in a seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant to evaluate the existing preventive maintenance policy. Conclusion: This method can be used for facilities or systems that undergo degradation, which can be evaluated in terms of cost and time. The method is expected to be used in decision-making for devising the optimal preventive maintenance policy.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.201-201
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• 2019

세계적인 기상이변으로 가뭄발생 빈도 및 영향이 증가하고 있으며, 급속한 산업화로 사용 가능한 수자원이 점차 고갈되어 있어, 국내에서도 해수담수화(Seawater Desalination)는 새로운 대체수자원으로 많은 관심을 받고 있다. 해수담수에 필요한 에너지 약 50~70%는 역삼투(Reverse Osmosis) 공정에서 발생되며, 해수온도 및 염분도에 따라 많이 변동될 수 있으므로 국립해양조사원(KHOA)의 과거 20년 자료를 이용하여 해수담수화 시설물 위치에 따른 영향을 분석하였다. 해수담수화에 필요한 에너지는 막 제조사에서 제공하는 RO Projection Software를 적용하여 에너지 소모량을 평가하고, 이를 고려한 시설물 위치에 대한 평가 모델을 구축하였다. 기존 해수담수화 시설은 대규모 물 공급이 필요한 지역을 우선적으로 고려했기 때문에 시설물 위치에 대한 객관적인 평가기준 마련이 어려웠다. 그러나 해수담수화 플랜트는 한번 설치되면 장기적인 시설물 유지 및 관리가 필요함으로 경제성을 고려한 최적 입지의 선정은 매우 중요하다. 본 연구는 국립해양조사원의 수집된 자료를 바탕으로 해수담수화 시설물 입지선정을 정량적으로 평가함으로서, 시설물 위치에 대한 의사결정시 참고할 수 있는 기초자료로 활용될 것으로 기대한다.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.485-492
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• 2021

This study focused on safety aspects surrounding energy consumption in the seawater desalination process in the Daesan Industrial Complex located on the West Sea coast. The safety index for energy consumption was evaluated under different salinities and temperatures of the incoming seawater. Temperature and salinity input data for the 1997-2018 period were obtained from the Marine Environment Information System, and the power required for reverse osmosis (RO) was applied to the program as per the data provided by the RO membrane manufacturer (Q-Plus v3.0). Notably, reasonable energy consumption guidelines were proposed during the design of the desalination facilities; in this regard, the desalination process required approximately 2.10-2.90 kWh/m³ electrical power. Moreover, the energy safety based on 95 % was estimated to be 2.80 kWh/m³ when the desalination facility was operated.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.251-257
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• 2014

This research is focused on coagulation and sand filtration process as a pretreatment of RO seawater desalination. RO systems require sufficient and reliable pretreatment process to produce superior quality of RO feedwater that can mitigate RO membrane fouling. This experiment was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of coagulation and filtration process under various experimental conditions including different coagulant dose, flocculation mixing intensity and time, turbidity, and filtration rate. The experimental results showed that the optimum pretreatment conditions resulting in lower SDI value suitable for RO feedwater were coagulation pH 6.5, raw water turbidity greater than 4 NTU, and media bed depth greater than 550 mm. However, flocculation mixing intensity, coagulant dose, and filtration rate relatively affected little on the filtration efficiency.