• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.700-708
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• 1996

TiO2 membranes for microfiltration were prepared on $\alpha$-alumina support tube by slurry coating. The coating layer was obtained by flowing TiO2 slip on the inner surface of the alumina support. TiO2 membranes were heat-treated at 9$25^{\circ}C$ for 2 hrs. The thickness of the unsupported membrane was about 10${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$. The mean pore diameter of the membranes were 0.09 and 0.15${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ respectively and the pure water flux was 900~1,200ι/m2.hr at room temperature and 1 bar. For a possible application of oily wastewater treatement an kerosene/wa-ter emulsion was separated in terms of flux and removal efficiency. In 60 min of operating time the flux of TiO2 membranes was 50~100 ι/m2.hr and removal efficiency was over 97% at 3kgf/cm2 of operating pres-sure and 600 ml/min of flow rate. TiO2 membranes could be recycled by reheat treatments at $600^{\circ}C$ for 2 hrs.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.351-359
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• 2011

For advanced drinking water treatment of high turbidity water, we used the hybrid process that was composed of photocatalyst packing in space of between outside of multi-channel ceramic microfiltration membrane and membrane module inside. Photocatalyst was polypropylene (PP) beads coated $TiO_2$ powder by CVD (chemical vapor deposition) process. Instead of natural organic matters (NOM) and fine inorganic particles in natural water source, standard NOM solution was prepared with humic acid and kaolin. Water-back-flushing of 10 sec was performed per every period of 10 min to minimize membrane fouling. Resistance of membrane fouling ($R_f$) increased and J decreased as concentration of humic acid changed from 2 mg/L to 10 mg/L, and finally the highest total permeate volume ($V_T$) could be obtained at 2 mg/L. Then, treatment efficiency of turbidity and $UV_{254}$ absorbance were above 96.4% and 78.9%, respectively. As results of treatment portions by membrane filtration, photocatalyst adsorption, and photo-oxidation in (MF), (MF + $TiO_2$), (MF + $TiO_2$ + UV) processes, turbidity was treated little by photocatalyst adsorption, and photo-oxidation. However, treatment portions of $UV_{254}$ absorbance by adsorption (MF + $TiO_2$) and photo-oxidation (MF + $TiO_2$ + UV) at humic acid of 4 mg/L and 6 mg/L were above 9.0, 9.5 and 8.1, 10.9%, respectively.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.211-219
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• 2013

Effect of water back-flushing period (FT) was investigated in hybrid water treatment process of carbon ultrafiltration and polypropylene (PP) beads coated with photocatalyst, and membrane effect was studied by comparing the previous studies with carbon microfiltration or alumina ultrafiltration, microfiltration membranes. FT 6 min was the most effective to control initial membrane fouling and optimal condition because the membrane fouling resistance was low until initial 60 min and the maximum total permeate volume was acquired at this FT. The turbidity treatment efficiency was high beyond 98.6%, and did not depend on FT, which was same with the previous result of carbon or alumina microfiltration. The organic matters treatment efficiency was the highest value of 98.2% at FT 6 min, which was almost same trend with the previous result of alumina microfiltration. Then the organic matters treatment efficiency of carbon microfiltration was the minimum at no back-flushing (NBF) and increased as decreasing FT, but that of alumina ultrafiltration was the maximum at NBF and also increased as decreasing FT. Therefore it means that water back-flushing effect on the organic matters treatment efficiency had a different mechanism depending on pore size in spite of the same material membranes.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.134-137
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• 2008

• Membrane Journal
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.243-250
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• 2012

The effect of water back-flushing period (filtration time, FT) was investigated in hybrid process of alumina microfiltration and photocatalyst for advanced drinking water treatment in this study, and compared with the previous studies with carbon microfiltration or alumina ultrafiltration membranes. The FT was changed in the range of 2~10 min with fixed 10 sec of BT. Then, the FT effects on resistance of membrane fouling ($R_f$), permeate flux (J) and total permeate volume ($V_T$) were observed during total filtration time of 180 min. As decreasing FT, $R_f$ decreased and J increased as decreasing FT, which was same with the previous results with carbon microfiltration or alumina ultrafiltration membranes. The treatment efficiency of turbidity was high beyond 98.1%, and the effect of FT was not shown on treatment efficiency of turbidity, which was same with the previous result of carbon microfiltration. The treatment efficiency of organic matters was the highest value of 89.6 % at FT 8 min, which was a little higher than those of the previous results, and the effect of FT was not shown on treatment efficiency of organic matters.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.325-335
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• 2008

In this study, we used multi-channels ceramic membrane having larger permeate volume per unit time rather than tubular membrane. The hybrid process for advanced drinking water treatment was composed of granular activated carbons (GAC) packing between module inside and outside of multi-channels microfiltration membrane. Instead of natural organic matters (NOM) and fine inorganic particles in natural water source, modified solution was prepared with humic acid and kaolin. Kaolin concentration was fixed at 30mg/L and humic acid was changed as $2{\sim}10\;mg/L$ to inspect effect of organic matters. As a result, both resistance of membrane fouling ($R_f$) and permeate flux (J) were highly influenced by concentration of humic acid. Also, in result of water-back-flushing period (FT) effect, the shorter FT was the more effective to reduce membrane fouling and to enhance permeate flux because of frequent water-back-flushing. However, the optimal FT condition was 8 min when operating costs were considered. Then, the hybrid process using multi-channels ceramic membrane and GAC was applied to lake water treatment. As a result, average treatment efficiencies in our experiment using the hybrid process were 98.02% for turbidity, 75.64% for $UV_{254}$ absorbance, 7.18% for TDS and 84.73% for $COD_{Mn}$.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.271-279
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• 2023

Fouling is an inevitable problem in membrane water treatment plant. It can be measured by trans-membrane pressure (TMP) in the constant flux operation, and chemical cleaning is carried out when TMP reaches a critical value. An early fouilng alarm is defined as warning the critical TMP value appearance in advance. The alarming method was developed using one of machine learning algorithms, decision tree, and applied to a ceramic microfiltration (MF) pilot plant. First, the decision tree model that classifies the normal/abnormal state of the filtration cycle of the ceramic MF pilot plant was developed and it was then used to make the early fouling alarm method. The accuracy of the classification model was up to 96.2% and the time for the early warning was when abnormal cycles occurred three times in a row. The early fouling alram can expect reaching a limit TMP in advance (e.g., 15-174 hours). By adopting TMP increasing rate and backwash efficiency as machine learning variables, the model accuracy and the reliability of the early fouling alarm method were increased, respectively.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.72-83
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• 2011

For advanced drinking water treatment of high turbidity water, we used the hybrid module that was composed of photocatalyst packing between outside of tubular ceramic microfiltration membrane and membrane module inside. Photocatalyst was PP (polypropylene) bead coated $TiO_2$ powder by CVD (chemical vapor deposition) process. Instead of natural organic matters (NOM) and fine inorganic particles in natural water source, modified solution was prepared with humic acid and kaolin. Water-back-flushing of 10 sec was performed per every period of 10 min to minimize membrane fouling. Resistance of membrane fouling ($R_f$) decreased and J increased as concentration of humic acid changed from 10 mg/L to 2 mg/L, and finally the highest total permeate volume ($V_T$) could be obtained at 2 mg/L. Then, treatment efficiencies of turbidity and $UV_{254}$ absorbance were above 98.5% and 85.7%, respectively. As results of treatment portions by membrane filtration, photocatalyst adsorption, and photo-oxidation in MF, MF + $TiO_2$, and MF + $TiO_2$ + UV processes, turbidity was treated little by photocatalyst adsorption, and photo-oxidation. However, treatment portions of humic acid by adsorption and photo-oxidation were above 10.7 and 8.6%, respectively.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.499-515
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate membrane fouling caused by microalgal cells in submerged membrane systems consisting of polymeric and ceramic microfiltration membranes. In this study, one polymeric (flat-sheet, pore size: $0.2{\mu}m$) and two ceramic (flat-sheet, pore size: $0.2{\mu}m$ and cylindrical, pore size: $1{\mu}m$) membranes were used. Physical cleaning was performed with water and air to determine the potential for reversible and irreversible membrane fouling. The study results showed that substantial irreversible membrane fouling (after four filtration cycles, irreversible fouling degree 27% (cleaning with water) and 38% (cleaning with air)) occurs in the polymeric membrane. In cleaning studies performed using water and air on ceramic membranes, it was observed that compressed air was more effective (recovery rate: 87-91%) for membrane cleaning. The harvesting performance of the membranes was examined through critical flux experiments. The critical flux values for polymeric membrane with a pore size of $0.20{\mu}m$ and ceramic membranes with a pore size of $0.20{\mu}m$ and $1{\mu}m$ were ${\leq}95L/m^2hour$, ${\leq}70L/m^2hour$ and ${\leq}55L/m^2hour$, respectively. It was determined that critical flux varies depending on the membrane material and the pore size. To obtain more information on membrane fouling caused by microalgal cells, the characterization of the fouled polymeric membrane was performed. This study concluded that ceramic membranes with a pore size of $0.2-1{\mu}m$ in the submerged membrane system could be efficiently used for microalgae harvesting by cleaning the membrane with compressed air at regular intervals.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.285-292
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• 2018

In the following study, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is used for prediction of permeate flux decline during oily wastewater treatment by hybrid powdered activated carbon-microfiltration (PAC-MF) process using mullite and mullite-alumina ceramic membranes. Permeate flux is predicted as a function of time and PAC concentration. To optimize the networks performance, different transfer functions and different initial weights and biases have been tested. Totally, more than 850,000 different networks are tested for both membranes. The results showed that 10:6 and 9:20 neural networks work best for mullite and mullite-alumina ceramic membranes in PAC-MF process, respectively. These networks provide low mean squared error and high linearity between target and predicted data (high $R^2$ value). Finally, the results present that ANN provide best results ($R^2$ value equal to 0.99999) for prediction of permeation flux decline during oily wastewater treatment in PAC-MF process by ceramic membranes.