• 상하수도학회지
• /
• 제19권6호
• /
• pp.775-780
• /
• 2005

This study was performed to investigate the effect of foulant characteristics on Membrane fouling index such as Silt Density Index (SDI) and Modified Fouling Index (MFI). A linear relationship was found relating the fouling index (both SDI and MFI) on particle concentration, but fouling index values were nonlinearly (exponentially) with increasing organic concentration. When organic matter was the primary cause of fouling, the MFI was not accurately predicted due to internal fouling such as pore adsorption. The fouling index was determined mainly by particle characteristics when both particle and organic coexisted in the feed water. This observation was attributed to lessening of organic pore adsorption by particle cake layer formed on the membrane surface. Bench-scale actual fouling experiments demonstrated that permeate flux declines much faster with feed water containing particles than organic matters although fouling potential predicted by SDI values were identical, indicating that the accurate prediction of fouling potential requires the development of fouling index reflecting different foulant characteristics.

• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• 제16권3호
• /
• pp.149-157
• /
• 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.

• 상하수도학회지
• /
• 제17권4호
• /
• pp.534-541
• /
• 2003

Membrane processes are now frequently considered for application in drinking water treatment. The biggest impediment for applying membrane processes is fouling that comes from mass flux (such as particle and organic matter) to the membrane surface and its pores due to convection flow through the membrane. Natural organic matter (NOM) has been reported as the most detrimental foulant. Some research also indicated that particles were often the dominant cause of fouling. Therefore, both NOM and particle fouling need to be examined to better understand fouling in ultrafiltration. Two waters from natural sources, Lake Austin water and Missouri River water, were selected. Both waters are relatively hard waters but has significantly different particle concentrations, which will elucidate effects of particles on membrane fouling. Precipitative softening is traditionally designed to remove hardness ions in hard waters but it can also remove particles and organic matter. Therefore, the integrated water treatment with softening and ultrafiltration is proposed as a promising option for hard waters. The three levels of softening were used to represent different degrees of pretreatment to ultrafiltration in terms of organic matter (i.e., NOM fouling) and precipitates (i.e., particle fouling by further precipitation). Results showed that natural particles in Missouri River water was detrimental foulants of ultrafiltration. As the levels of softening were increased, NOM and particle removal was increased, and thus fouling was decreased. Direct images of the surface of the membranes by scanning electron microscopy allowed observation of the different properties of particles caught in fibril networks of natural organic matter.

• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• 제19권1호
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2014

Natural organic matter (NOM) is a primary component of fouling in low-pressure membrane filtration, either solely, or in concert with colloidal particles. Various preventive measures to interfere with NOM fouling have been developed and extensively tested, such as coagulation, oxidation, ion exchange, carbon adsorption, and mineral oxide adsorption. Therefore, this article aims to conduct a literature review covering the topics of low-pressure membrane processes, NOM characteristics and fouling behaviors, and diverse fouling control strategies. In-depth explanations and discussion are made regarding why some treatment options are able to remove NOM from source water, but do not reduce fouling. This review provides insight for hybridized membrane processes with respect to NOM removal and fouling mitigation in water treatment.

• 상하수도학회지
• /
• 제29권1호
• /
• pp.133-138
• /
• 2015

Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) process is one of membrane processes for harvesting renewable energy by using salinity difference between feed and draw solutions. Power is generated by permeation flux multiplied by hydraulic pressure in draw side. Membrane fouling phenomena in PRO process is presumed to be less sever, but it is inevitable. Membrane fouling in PRO process decreases water permeation through membrane, resulting in significant power production decline. This study intended to investigate the effect of hydraulic pressure in PRO process on alginate induced organic fouling as high and low hydraulic pressures (6.5 bar and 12 bar) were applied for 24 h under the same initial water flux. In addition, organic fouling in draw side from the presence of foulant (sodium alginate) in draw solution was examined. As major results, hydraulic pressure was found to be not a significant factor affecting in PRO organic fouling as long as the same initial water flux is maintained, inidicating that operating PRO process with high hydraulic pressure for efficient energy harvesting will not cause severe organic fouling. In addition, flux decline was negligible from the presence of organic foulant in draw side.

• 멤브레인
• /
• 제12권2호
• /
• pp.55-66
• /
• 2002

본 총설에서는 전기투석 공정의 운전과 설계 능력 향상을 위해 이온교환막의 막오염현상에 관한 연구를 조사하였다. 이온교환막의 막오염현상을 정량적으로 평가하기 위해 압력차를 구동력으로 하는 막공정의 막오염지수와 유사한 전기투석 막오염지수(EDMFI)를 정의하였다. 막오염현상은 무기오염원인 실리카졸과 유기 오염원인 휴믹산과 BSA를 함유한 전기 투석 실험 결과를 비교하여 연구되었다. 이 비교에서 EDMFI는 전기투석 공정의 막오염경향을 정량적인 척도로 유용하게 이용될 수 있음을 보여주었다. 새로운 오염저감 기술로 사각파 전원이 유효함이 유기 오염물을 포함한 전기투석 실험결과에서 보고되었다. 이펄스 형태의 사각파 전원은 최적주파수에서 막오염현상을 현저하게 감소시킬 수 있었다.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• 제8권2호
• /
• pp.185-199
• /
• 2017

Low-pressure membrane filtration is increasingly used for tertiary treatment of wastewater effluent organic matter (EfOM), mainly comprising organic base/neutral compounds. In-line coagulation with underdosing, charge neutralization, and sweep floc conditions prior to ultrafiltration (UF) was studied to determine removals of the EfOM components and consequent reduction of fouling using polyethersulfone membranes. Coagulation and UF substantially reduced fouling for all coagulation conditions while removing from 7 to 38% of EfOM organic acids. From 7 to 16% of EfOM organic base/neutrals were removed at neutral pH but there was no significant removal for slightly acid coagulation conditions even though fouling was substantially reduced. Sweep floc produced the lowest resistance to filtration but may be inappropriate for in-line use due to the large added volume of solids. Charge-neutralization resulted in poor recovery of the initial flux with hydraulic cleaning. Under-dosing paralleled sweep floc in reducing hydraulic resistance to filtration (for sub-critical flux) and the initial flux was also easily recovered with hydraulic cleaning. Hydrophobic and hydrophilic base/neutrals were identified on the fouled membranes but as previously reported the extent of fouling was not correlated with accumulation of organic base/neutrals.

• 멤브레인
• /
• 제30권2호
• /
• pp.131-137
• /
• 2020

본 연구에서는 가압식 분리막 여과에서 무기입자의 존재가 유기파울링에 미치는 영향을 관찰하였다. 유기파울링의 유발을 위해 알긴산나트륨(sodium alginate, SA)를 이용한 정밀여과 실험에서 무기 실리카(SiO₂) 입자의 존재 유무와 상관없이 분리막 파울링은 여과초기 완전공극막힘에서 여과시간이 경과할수록 케이크 형성에 의해 주로 지배되었다. 그러나 무기입자의 존재 시 정압여과에서 알긴산나트륨 파울링 케이크 비저항값과 압축성은 상대적으로 낮게 관찰되었고 이로 인해 낮은 파울링 속도가 관찰되었다. 동일한 시료를 이용한 정량여과 실험을 수행한 결과 정압여과에 비해 정량여과에서 여과초기 공극막힘현상 및 파울링 속도는 더욱 증가하였다. 이와 같은 현상은 파울링층이 지닌 압축성으로 막간차압의 증가 시 케이크 비저항값이 함께 증가하였기 때문인 것으로 판단된다. 알긴산나트륨과 실리카 입자가 함께 존재 시 알긴산나트륨이 단독으로 존재하는 것보다 수리학적 세정을 통한 파울링 제거효과는 더욱 좋은 것으로 관찰되었다.

• 상하수도학회지
• /
• 제25권2호
• /
• pp.171-176
• /
• 2011

Organic matters that comprise a tiny part of seawater generally occur over 50% of membrane fouling in Reverse Osmosis Process. This study evaluates Foundation efficiency of reverse osmosis membranes under brackish and seawater conditions and resistance of organic fouling. Moreover, analyzing the membrane surface through roughness, contact angle and zeta potential results in roughness and contact angle are proportional to flux decline rate (FDR), yet FDR has high value when zeta potential is low level. Furthermore, with various membrane fouling of different raw water conditions, the flux tends to improve when pH value is high and raw water which is complex with organic and cation pollutes membrane faster than organic separated raw water condition.

• 한국환경과학회지
• /
• 제20권9호
• /
• pp.1079-1085
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study is to find the operational characteristics of nitrifier-dominated membrane bioreactor (MBR), which has been extensively studied for organic removal, especially in terms of nitrite ($NO_2$-N) build-up and membrane fouling. Membrane fouling is one of the important factor which determines the economics of MBR system. The characteristics of membrane fouling was monitored in terms of the fouling indices such as sludge volume index (SVI), the concentration of total organic carbon (TOC) and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in a membrane permeate or sludge extract, the absorbance of supernatant at 260 nm. Most of index values except for protein concentration in EPS had a close relation with the increase of suction pressure and SVI value. Nitrifying MBR was superior to the conventional organic-oxidizing MBR in terms of membrane fouling since the fouling index value of nitrifying MBR was lower than that of BOD-oxidizing MBR.