• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.413-420
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• 2019

Pretreatment system of desalination process using seawater reverse osmosis(SWRO) membrane is the most critical step in order to prevent membrane fouling. One of the methods is coagulation-UF membrane process. Coagulation-UF membrane systems have been shown to be very efficient in removing turbidity and non-soluble and colloidal organics contained in the source water for SWRO pretreatment. Ferric salt coagulants are commonly applied in coagulation-UF process for pretreatment of SWRO process. But aluminum salts have not been applied in coagulation-UF pretreatment of SWRO process due to the SWRO membrane fouling by residual aluminum. This study was carried out to see the effect of residual matal salt on SWRO membrane followed by coagulation-UF pretreatment process. Experimental results showed that increased residual aluminum salts by coagulation-UF pretreatment process by using alum lead to the decreased SWRO membrane salt rejection and flux. As the salt rejection and flux of SWRO membrane decreased, the concentration of silica and residual aluminum decreased. However, when adjusting coagulation pH for coagulation-UF pretreatment process, the residual aluminum salt concentration was decreased and SWRO membrane flux was increased.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.15-29
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• 2014

Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination has gained wide and increasing acceptance around the world as a straightforward undertaking to alleviate the alarming water crisis. An enhanced monitoring of the quality of the water feeding in seawater RO (SWRO) plant through the application of an effective pretreatment option is one of the keys to the success of RO technology in desalination plants. Over the past 10 years, advances in ultrafiltration (UF) membrane technologies in application for water and wastewater treatment have prompted an impetus for using membrane pretreatment in seawater desalination plants. By integrating SWRO plant with UF pretreatment, the rate of membrane fouling can be significantly reduced and thus extend the life of RO membrane. With the growing importance and significant advances attained in UF pretreatment, this review presents an overview of UF pretreatment in SWRO plants. The advantages offered by UF as an alternative of pretreatment option are compared to the existing conventionally used technologies. The current progress made in the integration of SWRO with UF pretreatment is also highlighted. Finally, the recent advances pursued in UF technology is reviewed in order to provide an insight and hence path the way for the future development of this technology.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.34-41
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• 2016

Using UF-SWRO hybrid process, pre-blending tests of seawater and brackish water were performed to investigate the effects on removal of boron and humic acid (HA). Feedwater pre-blending was set based on TDS concentration from 15,000 mg/L to 27,000 mg/L and analyzed for boron removal characteristics. Also organics rejection at same TDS concentration range was investigated by injecting HA. Boron concentration appeared to be high as TDS concentration was high ranging from 76.60% to 83.27%, but boron concentration in final produced water was increased up to 0.69 mg/L from 0.48 mg/L. In cases of HA tests at 10 mg/L, 22,500 mg/L TDS appeared to be higher removal rate of 17.59% than a very poor result of 8.43% in 27,000 mg/L. But high HA removal rate of 57.14% was obtained in produced water with 22,500 mg/L TDS containing 10 mg/L of HA and 27,000 mg/L TDS yielded lower boron removal rate of 54.49%. Meanwhile it was found that a relatively high flux and recovery rate were obtained following process when feedwater was injected with HA. It is considered that most of fouling substances were eliminated by binding between HA and $Ca^{2+}$. Thus, when desalination using UF-SWRO with respect to boron and HA, TDS concentration is determined to be advantageous as lower.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.205-212
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• 2011

Reverse osmosis (RO) technology has developed over the past 40 years to control a 44% market share in the world desalting production capacity and an 80% share in the total number of desalination plants installed worldwide. The application of conventional and low-pressure membrane pretreatment processes to seawater RO (SWRO) desalination has undergone accelerated development over the past decade. Reliable pretreatment techniques are required for the successful operation of SWRO processes, since a major issue is membrane fouling associated with particulate matter/colloids, organic/inorganic compounds, and biological growth. While conventional pretreatment processes such as coagulation and granular media filtration have been widely used for SWRO, there has been an increased tendency toward the use of ultrafiltration/microfiltration (UF/MF) instead of conventional treatment techniques. The literature shows that both the conventional and the UF/MF membrane pretreatment processes have different advantages and disadvantages. This review suggests that, depending on the feed water quality conditions, the suitable integration of multiple pretreatment processes may be considered valid since this would utilize the benefits of each separate pretreatment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.285-292
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• 2021

Osmotic power is to produce electric power by using the chemical potential of two flows with the difference of salinity. Water permeates through a semipermeable membrane from a low concentration feed solution to a high concentration draw solution due to osmotic pressure. In a pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) process, river water and wastewater are commonly used as low salinity feed solution, whereas seawater and brine from the SWRO plant are employed as draw solution. During the PRO process using wastewater effluent as feed solution, PRO membrane fouling is usually caused by the convective or diffusive transport of PRO which is the most critical step of PRO membrane in order to prevent membrane fouling. The main objective of this study is to assess the PRO membrane fouling reduction by pretreatment to remove organic matter using coagulation-UF membrane process. The experimental results obtained from the pretreatment test showed that the optimum ferric chloride and PAC dosage for removal of organic matter applied for the coagulation and adsorption process was 50 mg/L as FeCl₃ (optimum pH 5.5). Coagulation-UF pretreatment process was higher removal efficiency of organic matter, as also resulting in the substantial improvement of water flux of PRO membrane.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.261-272
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• 2013

Algae boom (Red tide) in south coastal area of Korea has been appeared several times during a decade. If algae boom appears in the desalination plant, media filter and UF filter are clogged quickly, and the plant should be shutdown. In general, Algae can be removed from water by flotation better than by sedimentation, because of the low density of algal cell. The purpose of this study conducts the CFD simulation of DAF flotation basin to apply the design of the dissolved air flotation with ball filter in the Test Bed for SWRO desalination plant. In this study, Eulerian-Eulerian multiphase model was applied to simulate the behavior of air bubbles and seawater. Density difference model and gravity were used. But de-sludge process and mass transfer between air bubbles and seawater were ignored. Main parameter is hydraulic loading rate which is varied from 20 m/hr to 27.5 m/hr. Geometry of flotation basin were changed to improve the DAF performance. According to the result of this study, the increase of hydraulic loading rate causes that the flow in the separation basin is widely affected and the concentration of air is increased. The flow pattern in the contact zone of flotation basin is greatly affected by the location of nozzle header. When the nozzle header was installed not the bottom of the contact zone but the above, the opportunity of contact between influent and recycle flow was increased.