• 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.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.141-151
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• 2016

Large amounts of aluminum hydroxide ($Al(OH)_3$) exist in water purification sludge (WPS) because of the added aluminum coagulant in water treatment process. Notably, $Al(OH)_3$ is an amphoteric compound, can be dissolved in its basic condition using sodium hydroxide to form aluminate ions ($Al(OH)_4{^-}$). However, in a process in which pH is increasing, the humid acid can be dissolved easily from WPS and will inhibit the recovery and reuse of the dissolved aluminate ions. This study attempts to fix this problem by a novel approach to separate $Al(OH)_4{^-}$ ions using nanofiltration (NF) technology. Sludge impurity in a alkaline solution is retained by the NF membrane, such that the process recovers $Al(OH)_4{^-}$ ions, and significantly decreases the organic matter or heavy metal impurities in the permeate solution. The $Al(OH)_4{^-}$ ion is an alkaline substance. Experimental results confirm that a recovered coagulant of $Al(OH)_4{^-}$ ion can effectively remove kaolin particles from slightly acidic synthetic raw water.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.15-24
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• 2010

Coagulation can be used for pretreatment of NF membrane filtration. Foulants such as organic matter and particulate can be removed effectively with the process while high flux recovery is maintained. Recently various types of polyaluminium coagulants including polyaluminium chloride(PAC) are commercially available for water treatment. This study examines effects of polymeric Al and hydrolysis products of PAC on nanofiltration membrane performance. Dominant hydrolysis products were polymeric Al, $Al(OH)_3$, and ${Al(OH)_4}^{-1}$ at acidic, neutral, and alkaline pH conditions, respectively. Under acidic pH condition, flux decline was increased with increasing PAC concentrations, possibly due to polymeric Al adsorption on membrane pore and/or surfaces. For neutral and alkaline pH conditions, little flux decline was observed with increasing PAC concentrations except the highest ${Al(OH)_4}^{-1}$ concentration, with which rapid flux decline was shown. Removal of ionic matters was also varied with pH conditions in this study. Especially, conductivity removal was substantially low and $Ca^{2+}$ concentration in the permeate was quite high at neutral pH condition.

• Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.2487-2495
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• 2018

Inspired by the specific amino acid sequence Asn-Pro-Ala (NPA) of water channel aquaporins (AQPs), we fabricated polyamide (PA) nanofiltration (NF) membranes by introducing reduced glutathione (GSH) in interfacial polymerization (IP) method. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS), scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), zeta potential and static water contact angle measurement were employed to characterize the chemical composition, morphology, electronegativity and hydrophilicity of the NF membranes. The water flux of GSH/PIP-TMC NF membrane reached $32.00L\;m^{-2}h^{-1}$ at 0.2 MPa, which was approximately twice than that of pristine PIP-TMC NF membrane when the ratio of GHS to piperazidine (PIP) was 40% during IP process. More water channels were built as GSH was embedded into PA layer. The fabricated NF membranes also took on potent rejection for dyes and $Na_2SO_4$. This study presents a simple and facile method to simulate water channels-based biological materials which may find potential application in water treatment.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.275-279
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• 2004

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1999.04a
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• pp.145-147
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• 1999

• Membrane Journal
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.16-34
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• 2021

Water supplies are decreasing in comparison to increasing clean water demands. Using nanofiltration is one of the most effective and economical methods to meet the need for clean water. Common methods for desalination are reverse osmosis and nanofiltration. However, pristine membranes lack the essential features which are, stability, economic efficiency, antibacterial and antifouling performances. To enhance the properties of the pristine membranes, graphene oxide (GO) is a promising and widely researched material for thin film composites (TFC) membrane due to their characteristics that help improve the hydrophilicity and anti-fouling properties. Modification of the membrane can be done on different layers. The thin film composite membranes are composed of three different layers, the top filtering active thin polyamide (PA) layer, supporting porous layer, and supporting fabric. Forward osmosis (FO) process is yet another energy efficient desalination process, but its efficiency is affected due to biofouling. Incorporation of GO enhance antibacterial properties leading to reduction of biofilm formation on the membrane surface. Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is an excellent process to generate clean energy from sea water and the biofouling of membrane is reduced by introduction of GO into the active layer of the TFC membrane. Different modifications on the membranes are being researched, each modification with its own advantages and disadvantages. In this review, modifications of nanofiltration membranes and their composites, characterization, and performances are discussed.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.315-326
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• 2021

Lithium ion battery (LIB) demands increase every year globally to reduce the burden on fossil fuels. LIBs are used in electric vehicles, stationary storage systems and various other applications. Lithium is available in seawater, salt lakes, and brines and its extraction using environmentally friendly and inexpensive methods will greatly relieve the pressure in lithium mining. Membrane separation processes, mainly nanofiltration (NF), is an effective way for the separation of lithium metal from solutions. Electrodialysis and electrolysis are other separation processes used for lithium separation. The process of reverse osmosis (RO) is already a well-established method for the desalination of seawater; therefore, modifying RO membranes to target lithium metals is an excellent alternative method in which the only bottleneck is the interfering presence of other metal elements in the solution. Selectively removing lithium by finding or developing suitable NF membranes can be challenging, but it is nonetheless an exciting area of research. This review discusses in detail about lithium recovery via nanofiltration, electrodialysis, electrolysis and other processes.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.279-304
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• 2023

Polybenzimidazole (PBI) based membranes have evolved in literature as a popular membrane material for various applications in the past two decades because of their high temperature thermal durability, strong mechanical and tensile properties, high glass transition temperature (T_g), ion conduction ability at elevated temperature (up to 200℃), oxidative or chemical durability along with robust network like structural rigidity, which make PBI membranes suitable for various potential applications in chemically challenging environments. Ion conducting PBI based membranes have been extensively utilized in high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (HT-PEMFC). In addition, PBI based membranes have been vastly utilized for the development of gas separation membranes and organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membranes for their unique characteristics. This review will cover the recent progress and application of various types of flat sheet PBI based membranes for HT-PEMFC, gas separation and OSN application.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.111-121
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• 2020

The fouling of Nanofiltration membrane (NF) was examined using wastewater containing reactive black dye RB5 of 1500 Pt/Co color concentrations with 16890 mg/l TDS collected from El-alamia Company for Dying and Weaving in Egypt. The NF-unit was operated at constant pressure of 10 bars, temperature of 25℃, and flowrate of 420 L/min. SEM, EDX, and FTIR were used for fouling characterization. Using the ROIFA-4 program, the total inorganic fouling load was 1.07 mM/kg present as 49.3% Carbonates, 10.1% Sulfates, 37.2% Silicates, 37.2% Phosphates, and 0.93% Iron oxides. The permeate flux, recovery, salt rejection and mass transfer coefficients of the dye molecules were reduced significantly after fouling. The results clearly demonstrate that the fouling had detrimental effect on membrane performance in dye removal, as indicated by a sharp decrease in permeate flux and dye recovery 68%. The dye mass transfer coefficient was dropped dramatically by 34%, and the salt permeability increased by 14%. In this study, all the properties of the membrane used and the fouling that caused its poor condition are identified. Another study was conducted to regeneration fouled membrane again by chemical methods in another article (Abdel-Fatah et al. 2017).