• Membrane Journal
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.55-66
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• 2002

fouling phenomena of ion exchange membranes were reviewed for improved design and operation of electodialysis. The membrane fouling index for electrodialysis (EDMFI) was defined for the quantitative analysis of fouling potential as an analogy to the pressure-driven membrane process. fouling phenomena were compared in the electrodialysis experiments with inorganic foulant (silica sol) and organic foulants (humate and bovine serum albumin (BSA)), and their fouling potentials were analyzed using the fouling index. The comparison showed that the EDMFI could be used as a quantitative measure of the fouling tendency in electrodialysis processes. As a novel fouling mitigation method, square wave power was reported to be effective in electrodialysis with organic foulants. The square wave powers having the pulsed electric field enabled to reduce the membrane fouling significantly at an optimal frequency.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.31-39
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• 2020

Anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) treatment has been widely studied in recent years because of the potential for production of bio-energy from wastewater and energy-positive operation of wastewater treatment plants. Several AnMBR systems, including those that incorporate ceramic membranes, take advantage of enhanced water permeability and low membrane fouling potentials. Given that differences in the ceramic membranes may influence the results of AnMBR studies, relevant details are discussed in this review, which focuses on the profiles of common ceramic membranes used in AnMBR, treatment and filtration performances of different anaerobic ceramic membrane bioreactors (AnCMBRs), and the membrane fouling mitigation methods available for effective AnCMBRs operation. The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive summary of AnCMBR performance, feed wastewater characteristics, operating conditions, and the methods available for effective fouling mitigation.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2018

Fresh water is an important resource for humans, and pressure-driven membrane technology has been widely known as an energy-efficient method to obtain water resource. However, membrane fouling phenomenon, which is one of the major issue during operation, deteriorates membrane permeability. These fouling is usually affected by interaction between surface of membrane and various foulants, therefore, modification of membrane's surface is one of the methods to improve fouling-resistance. This review focuses on the method to modify surface of pressure-driven membranes such as microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), and reverse osmosis (RO). Specifically, there are two different surface modification methods: (1) adsorption and coating as the physical modification methods, (2) cross-linker, free radical polymerization (FRP), atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), plasma/UV-induced polymerization as the chemical modification methods. This review introduces the physico - chemical surface modification methods reported in recent papers and suggests research directions for membrane separation which can increase membrane fouling resistance.