• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 1994.06a
• /
• pp.45-58
• /
• 1994

Over the last 20 years, membrane separation processes, such as reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration and microfiltration, have been widely adopted by different industries. Commercial uses of membrane have displaced conventional separation processes, such as distillation, evaporation, precoat filter and so on. Membrane separation processes are often more capital and energy efficient when compared with conventional separation processes. Membrane devices and systems are almost always compact and modular. These are the well-known advantages of membrane separation processes. The disadvantage of the membrane process is that the process does not have scale merit and thus the membrane process is suitable for the small and middle size applications. Energy saving is, of course, the biggest advantage of the membrane process, and in many industries the membrane processes are employed because of this reason. Membrane process has other big advantage. In many applications membrane processes provide much higher quality of product than conventional processes. The example is ultrapure water production by membrane processes in semiconductor industry. Conventional technologies never offer such good quality of pure water. If you can obtain both energy saving and higher quality of product at the same time by membrane processes, this is the best application of membrane processes. One example is the concentration of orange juice by membrane, which has already been commercialized in Japan. Comparing with the conventional vacuum evaporation process, juice concentrated by the membrane process has much better taste and flavor and the energy consumption in the membrane process is much less than the evaporation process. In this paper, first membrane separation technology will be classified and then Japanese membrane manufacturers and new modules and devices under development in Japan will be introduced. Fourth energy saving in membrane process will be discussed and finally practical applications of membrane processes in Japan will be shown.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.445-448
• /
• 2008

The application of the membrane filtration process has been increased for the drinking water treatment system because of excellent quality of treated water compared with the sand filtration process. The selection of suitable pre-treatment processes and optimum flux according to the characteristics of raw water are important factors for the design of membrane processes. In this study, the most efficient pre-treatment processes for drinking water was selected by investigating the effects of pre-treatment processes on the operational stability of the membrane filtration process. Both lab-scale and pilot-scale experiments were conducted. In the lab-scale test, the effect of pre-treatment processes on the stability of the membrane filtration process was investigated indirectly by comparing the performance of membrane flux for raw water, pre-treated water, and membrane permeated water. In the pilot-scale test, the usefulness of prefiltration processes was assessed by comparing the performance of single membrane process and hybrid coagulation-membrane process. The results indicated that the coagulation process contributed to the stabilization of trans-membrane pressure (TMP) by removing contaminants on membranes, though the pre-filtration process had little effect on the TMP.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.209-221
• /
• 2016

As a highly hydrophilic fibrillar mineral in nature, attapulgite (ATP) is a promising new additive for preparation of ultrafiltration (UF) hybrid membrane. In this work, ATP particles, which were grafted with a new Gemini surfactant of Ethyl Stearate-di(octadecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride) to detach the crystal bundles to single crystal and enhance the uniform dispersion in an organic polymer matrix, were incorporated into poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) matrix, and PVDF/Gemini-ATP hybrid membranes for adsorptive removal of Ni(II) ions from aqueous solution were prepared via a phase inversion method. Chemical composition, crystalization and morphology of the modified ATP were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. The morphology of the hybrid membrane was characterized by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the performance of permeability, hydrophilicity and adsorption of Ni(II) ions were studied, and the adsorption kinetics of the PVDF/ATP hybrid membranes were particular concerned. The results showed that the hybrid membrane displayed a good thermal stability and hydrophilicity. Comparing with PVDF membrane, the hybrid membrane possessed good adsorption capacity for Ni(II) ions, and the adsorption kinetics fit well with Lagergren second-order equation.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 1992.10a
• /
• pp.15-33
• /
• 1992

Synthetic membrane processes are being increasingly integrated into existing reaction, isolation, and recovery schemes for the production of valuable biological molecules. In many cases they are replacing traditional unit processes. The properties of membrane systems which are most often exploited for both upstream and downstream processing are their permselectivity, high surface area per unit volume, and their potential for controlling the level of contact and/or mixing between two separate phases. Advances in both membrane materials and module design and operation have led to better control of concentration polarization and membrane fouling. After presenting some recent advances in membrane materials and fluid mechanics, we demonstrate how membranes have been integrated into cellular and enzymatic reaction schemes. This is followed by a review of established and emerging membrane separation processes. Several examples are used to emphasize the synergism between biological processes and synthetic membranes.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2002.05a
• /
• pp.159-162
• /
• 2002

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.277-286
• /
• 2019

In 2014, the first demineralization plant, using nanofiltration (NF) membrane coupled with renewable energies was realized at Al Annouar high school of Sidi Taibi, Kenitra, Morocco. This project has revealed difficulties related to the membrane performances loss (pressure increase, flux decline, poor water quality of the produced water and increase of energy consumption), as consequences of membrane fouling. To solve this problem, an autopsy of the membrane was done in order to determine the nature and origin of the fouling. The samples of membrane and fouling were then analyzed by scanning electron microscopy using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) connected with an energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) detection system and X-ray diffractometer (XRD). Moreover, three cleaning solutions (hydrochloric acid, nitric acid and sulfuric acid) were tested and assessed in a single cleaning step to find the suitable one for the fouled membrane to regain its initial permeability and performances. The analysis of the experimental results showed that the fouling layer is mainly composed of calcium carbonate (inorganic fouling). Results showed also that the permeability is improved by the hydrochloric acid cleaning (pH=3) with a cleaning efficiency of 93%. Cleaning efficiency did not exceed 75 % with nitric acid (pH=3) and 40 % with sulfuric acid (pH=3).

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 1994.06a
• /
• pp.33-43
• /
• 1994

It is the purpose of this paper to review the recent developments and future trends in various membrane processes, which will result in energy savings. Historically, there was a long period of academic curiosity in membrane research covering from gas separation to reverse osmosis. With advent of asymmetric membrane technology, many membrane processes proved to be energy efficient than the conventional separation methods. Thus, membrane technology has gained wide acceptance from many sectors of industry. The commercial sale of membranes is still modest compared to the major technologies, but it is one of the fastest growing industries. Recently the U.S.Department of Energy conducted a study (1) to evaluate and prioritize research needs in the membrane separation industry in order to foster and better support the deveolpment of energy-efficient new technologies. The National Science Foundation (U.S.A.) did also do a similar investigation. Both agencies have arrived neary at the same conclusion, that is, membrane separations can offer many new and alternative methods of separations that are more energy efficient than existing processes. This paper is largely based on these findings.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.1-20
• /
• 1992

Classical membrane processes like microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) are being applied in the last years more frequently in environmental and effluent process problems. Newer technologies and developments like pervaporation (PV) and gas sepaxation (GS) recently found commercial applications in the treatment of waste waters and gas streams. The incentive here is either the clean-up from organic components to comply with federal emission regulations or the recovery of the organics for economical reasons. Processes still in their development stage are combinations of chemical reactions with membrane processes to separate and treat $SO_x$ and $NO_x$ laden waste gas streams in the clean-up of stack-gases. In this paper we will first give a short overview of the more recent developments in MF, UF and RO. This is followed by a closer look on newer technologies applied in environmental problems. The applications looked at are the recovery of organic components from solvent laden gas streams and the separation of organic volatiles from aqueous waste waters via pervaporation. Technical solutions, the advantages and disadvantages of the processes and. where possible, cost estimations will be presented.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.224-230
• /
• 2000

Membrane processes are capable of removing much materials from water. The removal or rejection characteristics of a membrane is usually depend upon the nominal pore size or MWCO(molecular weight cut off). A membrane with a smaller nominal pore size or MWCO should be capable of removing smaller contaminants from water. A series of experiments was performed to investigate the separation characteristics of membrane processes which consisted of microfiltration(MF) and nanofiltration(NF). To evaluate removal efficiencies of some pollutants such as the consumption of $KMnO_4$, THMFP, NH3-N, Fe, Mn, and pesticides, source water sampled from the Kum river was treated by the those membrane processes. Also, the results of experiments were compared with those of conventional water treatment processes. By two types of the membrane process, total removal efficiency of $KMnO_4$ consumed, THMEP, and $NH_3-N$ were 91.0%, 84.3%, and 85.5%, respectively and those processes were efficient in pesticides removal as well. Most of the effluents satisfied the Korean standard of drinking water quality continuously in the experimental periods. However, NF was needed for producing the safe drinking water in case of treating the raw water contaminated with Mn since removal efficiency of MF was not high enough. On the basis of the experimental results, it was suggested that NF could be applied to remove not only $NH_3-N$ but THMFP even without pre-chlorination.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.181-200
• /
• 2012

At present water crisis is not an issue of scarcity, but of access. There is a growing recognition of the need for increased access to clean water (drinkable, agricultural, industrial use). An encouraging number of innovative technologies, systems, components, processes are emerging for water-treatment, including new filtration and disinfectant technologies, and removal of organics from water. In the past decade many methods have been developed. The most important membrane-based water technologies include reverse osmosis (RO), ultrafiltration (UF), microfiltration (MF), and nanofiltration. Beside membrane based water-treatment processes, other techniques such as advanced oxidation process (AOP) have also been developed. Some unconventional water treatment technology such as magnetic treatment is also being developed.