• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.543-551
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• 2017

Membrane fouling in membrane bioreactor (MBR) remains a primary challenge for its wider application. The focus of this study to investigate the influence of iron distribution in activated sludge on gel layer fouling in MBR. Significant reduction in the transmembrane pressure (TMP) rise rates was observed in the presence of iron as result of retarding the gel layer formation time. The spatial distribution of iron had a significant impact on the stratification structure of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) fractions, such as proteins (PN) and polysaccharides (PS). A mitigation of PN or PS from the supernatant to the EPS inner layers was observed in the presence of iron. Compared with the control reactor, the reduction in PN and PS of the supernatant and lower PN/PS rates of the LB-EPS were beneficial to decrease the membrane fouling potential during the gel layer formation. Consequently, the iron addition managed to control gel layer fouling could be a useful strategy in MBR.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.245-253
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• 2018

The aim of this study is to investigate the membrane fouling in a thermophilic membrane bioreactor (TMBR) operated different sludge retention times (SRTs). For this purpose, TMBR was operated at four different SRTs (10, 30, 60 and 100 days). Specific cake resistance (${\alpha}$), cake resistance, gel resistance, total resistance, MFI (modified fouling index) and FDR (flux decrease ratio) were calculated for all SRTs. It was observed that flux in the membrane increases with rising SRT although the sludge concentrations in the TMBR increased. The steady state flux was found to be 31.78; 34.70; 39.60 and 43.70 LMH ($Liter/m^2/h$) for the SRTs of 10, 30, 60 and 100 days respectively. The concentrations of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) and soluble microbial product (SMP) decreased with increasing SRT. The membrane fouling rate was higher at shorter SRT and the highest fouling rate appeared at an SRT of 10 d. Both the sludge cake layer and gel layer had contribution to the fouling resistance, but the gel layer resistance value was dominant in all SRTs.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.737-744
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• 2016

The investigation of effects on fouling propensity with various viscosity of feed solutions would be better understanding for forward osmosis (FO) performance since the fouling propensity was directly influenced with solution viscosity. Therefore, this study was focused on the FO fouling with model foultants (humic acid, alginate) by altering solution viscosity with change of ionic strength (I.S) and $Ca^{2+}$ concentrations. In the comparison between humic acid and alginate, as expected, the alginate generally caused more severe fouling (almost 35.8 % of flux reduction) based on the solution characteristics (high viscosity) and fouling patterns (coil and gel layer). However, interesting point to note is that the fouling propensity of alginate was more severe even though it was applied with low viscosity of feed conditions (I.S = 20 mM, $Ca^{2+}=1mM$). This might be due to that crossed linked gel layer of alginate on the FO membrane surface could be best formed in the condition of $Ca^{2+}$ presence and higher I.S, and that is more dominant to fouling propensity than the low viscosity of feed solutions.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.276-286
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• 2015

The effects of relaxation and backwashing on fouling in ultrafiltration were investigated using full-scale membrane bioreactors (MBRs) which operated at a constant flux of 30 LMH. This paper also estimated the feasibility of using intermittent aeration strategies for minimizing the hydraulic resistance to filtration in comparison with the continuous aeration for running MBRs. Multiple cycles of filtration (14.5 min each) and relaxation (0.5 min each) were repeated. Similarly, a backwash was conducted by replacing a relaxation after each filtration cycle for the comparative performance test. The attached cake thickness on the membrane rapidly increased, caused by subsequent no aeration leading to easier combining with gel layer and the formation of heterogeneous layer on the membrane surface. During periodic backwashing, it is expected that gel and thin cake layer might sufficiently be removed by heterogeneous layer. After periodic backwashing, subsequent cake layer formation during time of no aeration was rapid than frequent no aeration, acting as a prefilter and preventing further irreversible fouling. Based on the Pearson correlation analysis, overall period fouling (dTMP/min) and average of all cycles (dTMP/min) were strongly correlated with the on-off period of aeration for operating MBRs.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.332-342
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• 2015

In this study, to solve the major problem of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane, surface of reverse osmosis membrane was modified by silane-epoxy multi layer. Octyltrimethoxysilane (OcTES) was polymerized to membrane surface via cross-linking by Sol-gel method. n = 8 alkylgroup of OcTES formed the branch structure by self assembly. And for improve fouling resistance of RO membrane, Ether group of ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (EGDE) was given to improve hydrophilicity of RO membrane surface by ring-opening. To analyze structure of RO membrane surface with FE-TEM and AFM. Membrane surface of the ridge and valley structure and the bridge structure was confirmed due to the multi-layer surface modification of OcTES and EGDE. And through the increase of the roughness, the branch structure was formed well on membrane surface. Through the XPS analysis was identified chemical structure of membrane surface. And confirmed that the hydrophilic surface modification is given to the surface of the film through a Contact angle analysis. In optimization of EGDE surface modification condition, was suitable 0.5 wt% EGDE concentraion and $70^{\circ}C$ ring-opening temperature. In result of fouling resistance test and MFI is SUL-H10, $PA-OcTES_{1.0}$, $PA-OcTES_{1.0}-EGDE_{0.5}$ 68.7, 60.4, 5.4 ($10E-8hr/mL^2$), multi-layer surface modified membrane improved fouling resistance.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.959-970
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• 2000

A laboratory-scale experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of soluble microbial products(SMP) on permeate flux in the submerged membrane separation activated sludge process. Continuous and batch filtration test were operated to understand mechanism of relationship between membrane fouling and SMP. Synthetic wastewater(phenol) was used as a carbon source. Hydraulic retention time(HRT) and mixed-liquor volatile suspended solids(MLVSS) of the reactor were kept at 12 hours and 9.000mg VSS/L, respectively. Batch filtration tests ($J_{60}/J_o$) using the mixed liquor from reactor showed that the increase of accumulated SMP concentration in the reactor caused to the decreasing permeate flux and the increasing of the adhesion matters which form cake and gel layer. The resistance value of cake layer was measured $2.9{\times}10^{10}{\sim}4.0{\times}10^{10}(1/m)$, this value showed more significant effect on flux drop than that of among other resistance layers. Batch phenol-degradation experiment was conducted to observe SMP type expected $SMP_{nd}$ and $SMP_{e}$ (SMP resulted from endogenous cell decomposition), these are non-biodegradable high molecular weight organic matter and playa significant role in permeate flux drop. Also, SMP concentration was accumulated as increased of HRT against flux drop.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.169-179
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• 2018

The purposes of this paper were to improve both fouling and chlorine resistance by increasing the hydrophilicity of the reverse osmosis membrane. In order to improve chlorine resistance, the surface of RO membrane was activated by ultraviolet irradiation, and then it was modified by the sol-gel method using Octyltriethoxysilane (OcTES) such as the silane coupling agent to low sensitivity to chlorine, thereby the polyamide active layer was protected and chlorine resistance was improved. In addition, polyglycerol polyglycidyl ether (PGPE) and sorbitol polyglycidyl ether (SPE) coating with different number of epoxides, ring opening reaction of epoxide improved the anti-fouling resistance. The surface modification condition was optimized by FT-IR, XPS, and contact angle analysis. As a result, the permeability reduction rate of the silane-epoxy modified membrane after the fouling test was decreased about 1.5 times as compared with that of the commercial membrane. And the salt rejection was maintained over 90% at $20,000ppm{\times}hr$ even after chlorine resistance test.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.188-195
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of an intermittent aeration mode to reduce the membrane fouling in a submerged membrane process using the specifically devised module (YEF 750D-2). The fluid velocity on the module increased with increasing the supplied air volume, and decreased with the increment of MLSS in the biological reactor. The reduction rate of the fluid velocity was found to be $3\times10^{-4}m{\cdot}min/sec{\cdot}L$ per 1,000 mg MLSS/L increased. In the operation of the intermittent aeration, the intermitted stop of the aeration provoked the formation of a cake layer on the gel layer which was previously formed during the aeration, resulting in the highly increased TMP level. However, the TMP level could be significantly lowered by the subsequent backwashing and aeration that effectively removed the cake along with the gel layer on the membrane surface. In this study, the optimum condition for the intermittent aeration was determined to be aeration for 20 sec and pause for 20 sec.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.169-176
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• 2008

The concentration of fresh gel from Aloe vera L. by using ulfrafiltration (UF) process was investigated and analyzed. The two membranes (organic and ceramic) with different molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) and modules (flat sheet and tubular) was used. Under optimum operation conditions, ceramic (zirconium dioxide) tubular membrane with MWCO of 50 kDa resulted in higher flux, less fouling, more turbid, higher total solid, higher polysaccharide and less aloin content. Optimum operation conditions were transmembrane pressure of 1.0 bar, feed velocity of 240 L/hr and temperature of $23^{\circ}C$. Volume concentration factor of aloe gel was 3.13 at permeate flux of $51.1\;L/m^2{\cdot}hr$ after processing time of 1.66 hr. Aloin in fresh aloe gel by UF process was effectively removed as permeate and bioactive polysaccharide content was 2.1 times higher than that of fresh aloe gel. These results allowed a very good level of concentration degree and polysaccharide content. Thus, ultrafiltration process of this study was suitable for the concentration of fresh aloe gel though the aloe concentrate showed both the viscosity decrease and partially separation of liquid layer during storage at $4^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1993.10a
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• pp.30-30
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• 1993

Polysulfone은 물리적, 화학적 성질이 우수한 재질로 분리막의 소재로 많이 이용되고 있다. 대부분의 막이 sieving mechanism에 기초를 두고 있기 때문에, 크기가 비슷한 물질의 혼합물일 경우는 분리할 수가 없다. 그러나 고정된 전하를 가지고 있는 Polysulfone 하전막을 제조하여, 전기적 효과에 의해서 전하를 띠는 물질과 중성인 물질을 분리해 낼 수 있다. 또한 하전막은 막과 동일한 전하를 가지고 있는 물질과 colloid를 배제하여 막표면에 gel layer가 형성되는 것을 방지하여 fouling을 감소시킬 수 있다.