• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.373-383
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• 2018

Fouling by solids and microorganisms is the major obstacle limiting the efficient use of membrane wastewater treatment. In our previous study, two stages microalgae/membrane filtration system was proposed to treat anaerobic digested palm oil mill effluent (AnPOME). This two stages microalgae/membrane filtration system had showed great potential for the treatment of AnPOME with high removal of COD, $NH_3-N$, $PO_4{^{3-}}$, TSS, turbidity, and colour. However, fouling behavior of the membrane in this two stages microalgae/membrane filtration system was still unknown. In this study, empirical models that describe permeate flux decline for dead-end filtration (pore blocking - complete, intermediate, and standard; and cake layer formation) presented by Hermia were used to fit the experimental results in identifying the fouling mechanism under different experimental conditions. Both centrifuged and non-centrifuged samples were taken from the medium with 3 days RT intervals, from day 0 to day 12 to study their influence on fouling mechanisms described by Hermia for ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), and reverse osmosis (RO) filtration mode. Besides, a more detailed study on the use of resistance-in-series model for deadend filtration was done to investigate the fouling mechanisms involved in membrane filtration of AnPOME collected after microalgae treatment. The results showed that fouling of UF and NF membrane was mainly caused by cake layer formation and it was also supported by the analysis for resistance-in-series model. Whereas, fouling of RO membrane was dominated by concentration polarization.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.53-64
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• 2008

Fouling behavior of polyethylene capillary membranes was examined by measuring the flux of bentonite colloidal suspensions through the cross flow micro filtration. The membrane fouling was due to the three mechanisms: the cake formation on the membrane surface, the standard pore blocking and the complete pore blocking by particles. These mechanisms were simultaneously responsible for the membrane fouling, being significantly governed by the cake filtration. In the total fouling at $1.0kg/cm^2$ TMP condition, the complete blocking was 3.36%, the standard blocking 3.18% and the cake filtration 96.05%. For 1000 ppm feed solution, the complete blocking was 1.71% compared with the standard blocking of 1.90% and the cake filtration of 96.39%. And 96.14% of the total fouling was generated at the initial period of filtration. The cake filtration effect was larger on $0.34{\mu}m$ pore membrane than on $0.24{\mu}m$ pore membrane. With the increase in cross flow velocity, the component fouling decreased by 10.20%, and the ratio of pore blocking to total fouling increased.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.519-527
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• 2017

Membrane fouling is the main issue hindering the expansion of low pressure membrane processes for surface water treatment. Therefore, applying periodic hydraulic cleaning for fouling control should be well optimized. Better understanding of membrane fouling associated with periodic hydraulic cleaning would be useful to optimize membrane cleaning strategies. By comparing experimental permeability data with the classical Hermia blocking laws, this study aims at analyzing membrane fouling and understanding dominant fouling mechanisms occurring when filtering a synthetic surface water solution with a pressurized membrane process during six filtration cycles of 30 min each, separated with cyclic cleaning of 1 min by backwashing and forward flushing separately and combined. When applying single cleaning technique, membrane fouling during the first cycles was controlled by complete blocking mechanism while the last cycles were dominated by cake formation. Nevertheless, when combining cleaning technique better membrane regeneration was obtained and fouling was mainly due to cake formation.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.149-157
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• 2011

Nanofiltration (NF) experiments were conducted to investigate fouling of Al-hydroxide precipitate and the influence of organic compound, inorganic compound, and their combination, i.e., multiple foulants. $CaCl_2$ and $MgSO_4$ were employed as surrogates of inorganic compounds while humic acid was used as surrogate of organic compound. The flux attained from NF experiments was fitted with the mathematical fouling model to evaluate the potential fouling mechanisms. Al-hydroxide fouling with a cake formation mechanism had little effect on the NF membrane fouling regardless of the Al concentration. The NF fouling by Al-hydroxide precipitate was deteriorated in presence of inorganic matter. The effect of Mg was more critical in increasing the fouling than Ca. This is because the Mg ions enhanced the resistances of the cake layer accumulated by the Al-hydroxide precipitate on the membrane surfaces. However, the fouling with Mg was dramatically mitigated by adding humic acid. It is interesting to observe that the removal of the conductivity was enhanced to 61.2% in presence of Mg and humic acid from 30.9% with Al-hydroxide alone. The influence of dissolved matter (i.e., colloids) was more negative than particulate matter on the NF fouling for Al-hydroxide precipitate in presence of inorganic and organic matter.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.559-567
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• 2013

In recent years, NF (nanofiltration) membrane has been receiving great attention for hardness removal and has begun to replace traditional lime soda ash softening process, particularly in Florida, USA, mainly due to less sludge production and easy operation. This study aimed to provide detailed surface characteristics of various commercial NF membranes by performing sophisticated surface analysis, which would help more fundamentally understand the performance of NF membranes. More specifically, a total of 7 NF membranes from top NF/RO manufacturers in the world were examined for basic performance tests, surface analysis, and fouling potential assessment. The results demonstrated that NF membranes are classified into two groups in terms of surface zeta potential; they are highly negatively charged ones, and neutral and/or less negatively charged ones. Their hydrophobicities, measured by contact angle, varied from hydrophilic to slightly hydrophobic ones. The AFM measurements showed various surface roughness, ranging from 23 nm (smooth) to 162 nm (rough) of average peak height. Lab-scale fouling experiments were performed using feedwater obtained from conventional water treatment plants in the province of Korea, and their results attempted to correlate to surface characteristics of NF membranes. However, unlike typical RO membranes, no clear correlation was found in this study, indicating that fouling mechanisms of NF membrane may be different from those of typical RO membranes, and both cake deposition and pore blocking mechanisms should be considered simultaneously.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.391-400
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• 2017

Understanding of seawater fouling characteristics is critical in designing a heat exchanger adapted in an effluent utilization system for a power plant. We reviewed three types of fouling mechanisms of general, biological, and crystallizing for a plate-frame heat exchanger, to be used for heat exchanging with heated effluent from a power plant. Also, mathematical models for each type of seawater fouling were suggested. Actual thermal resistance calculated from seawater fouling models were compared and implemented in designing a plate-frame heat exchanger. The bio-fouling model revealed the largest thermal resistance and the highest number of plates for a plate-frame heat exchanger under the same heat load. Overall heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of a plate-frame heat exchanger under fouling conditions was lower by 58 percent and higher by 2.85 times than those under clean conditions, respectively.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.327-339
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• 2016

Nanofiltration is useful to concentrate propolis extract. During the selection of membrane, both compound rejection and permeate flux are important indicators of process economy. Brazilian green propolis extract was studied to evaluate the separation performance of Startmen 122 and NF270 membranes. Compared to Starmen 122, NF270 membrane showed better rejection of bioactive compounds. The flux decline patterns were further studied using Hermia's model. Cake formation is the major fouling mechanism on the hydrophobic surface of Starmen 122. While the fouling mechanism for NF270 is pore blocking. The fouled membranes were further characterized using SEM and FT-IR to confirm on the predicted fouling mechanisms.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.331-338
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• 2019

This study aimed to investigate the membrane fouling and sludge characteristics in a pilot-scale submerged membrane bioreactor (MBR) operated under low temperature ($7^{\circ}C$). To elucidate the mechanisms of membrane fouling at low temperature, we studied the correlation between MBR performances and physicochemical properties of sludge including extracellular polymeric substance (EPS), relative hydrophobicity (RH) and floc size during long-term operation. The MBR was shown able to remove chemical oxygen demand (COD) stably and efficiently (>90 %) in the case of overgrowth of filamentous bacteria (bulking sludge) at low temperature. On the other hand, the occurrence of filamentous bulking greatly accelerated membrane fouling, as indicated by membrane filtration period of 14 days for filamentous bulking at $7^{\circ}C$, in comparison with that of 27 days for non-bulking sludge at $24^{\circ}C$ The overgrowth of filamentous bacteria resulting from low-temperature condition led to an increased release of EPS, higher RH, smaller floc size and lower fractal dimension of sludge. These factors accelerated the formation of compact cake layer on membrane surface in association with performance diminution in terms of increase in transmembrane pressure (TMP) of the membrane and thus the decrease in membrane permeability.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.93-101
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• 2010

This study examined the effects of feed water chemistry and membrane fouling on the rejection of trace organics by a loose nanofiltration membrane. One ionisable and one non-ionisable trace organics were selected for investigation. Results reported here indicate that the solution pH and ionic strength can markedly influence the removal of the ionisable trace organic compound sulfamethoxazole. These observations were explained by electrostatic interactions between the solutes and the membrane surface and by the speciation of the ionisable compound. On the other hand, no appreciable effects of solution pH and ionic strength on the rejection of the neutral compound carbamazepine were observed in this study. In addition, membrane fouling has also been shown to exert some considerable impact on the rejection of trace organics. However, the underlying mechanisms remain somewhat unclear and are subject to on-going investigation.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.299-305
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• 2019

Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) systems are gaining interest as an alternative to conventional water resources. However, when the water recovered in MAR systems, dissolved iron and manganese species may easily oxidize and they cause well screen clogging or require abandonment of extraction wells. In this study, both oxic and anoxic conditions were analyzed to verify the feasibility of the membrane filtration performance under various solution chemistries. The fouling mechanisms of the metal ions under anoxic conditions were also investigated by employing synthetic wastewater. The fouled membranes were then further analyzed to verify the major causes of inorganic fouling through SEM and XPS. The newly suggested anoxic process refining existing membrane process is expected to provide more precious information about nanofiltration (NF) membrane fouling, especially for demonstrating the potential advantages to chemical-free drinking water production for indirect potable reuse.