• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.735-741
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• 2010

A pilot test was carried out to investigate the long term operation characteristics of Microfiltration (MF) system as a pretreatment for seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) processes for two years. A commercialized MF module with pressurized operation type was used to filter seawater to remove particles which can foul reverse osmosis (RO) membrane. Silt Density Index (SDI) values of filtered seawater by the MF system were ranged from 0.14 to 1.79, which meet the SDI standard for RO feed water as depicted in previous literatures. Although the tested seawater is quite clean (i.e., dissolved organic cabon (DOC) concentration and turbidity were about 1 mg/l and less than 1 NTU, respectively) enough not to foul the MF membrane, steep increase in trans-membrane pressure (TMP) with a constant flux were observed over a whole operation period. A set of operation and water analysis data implies that the steep increase in TMP was resulted from iron and maganese fouling by the combination of metal corrosion by seawater and oxidation state by aeration and residual chlorine.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.39-52
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• 2018

Direct membrane filtration (DMF) of wastewater has many advantages over conventional biological wastewater treatment processes. DMF is not only compact, but potentially energy efficient due to the lack of biological aeration. It also produces more biosolids that can be used to produce methane gas through anaerobic digestion. Most of ammoniacal nitrogen in wastewater is preserved in effluent and is used as fertilizer when effluent is recycled for irrigation. In this study, a technical feasibility of DMF was explored. Organic and nitrogen removal efficiencies were compared between DMF and membrane bioreactor (MBR). Despite the extremely high F/V ratio, e.g., $14.4kg\;COD/m^3/d$, DMF provided very high COD removal efficiencies at ~93%. Soluble microbial products (SMP) and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) were less in DMF sludge, but membrane fouling rate was far greater than in MBR. The diversity of microbial community in DMF appeared very narrow based on the morphological observation using optical microscope. On the contrary, highly diverse microbial community was observed in the MBR. Microorganisms tended to form jelly globs and attach on reactor wall in DMF. FT-IR study revealed that the biological globs were structurally supported by feather-like materials made of secondary amines. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) study showed microorganisms mainly resided on the external surface of microbial globs rather than the internal spaces.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.159-166
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• 2020

In this study, the performance and antifouling properties of polysulfone (PSf) and polyvinylidene fluoride/polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVDF/PVP) membranes in a membrane bioreactor (MBR) were investigated. The membranes were prepared via phase inversion method, and then characterized by a set of analyses including contact angle, porosity and water flux and applied in a lab-scale MBR system. Soluble microbial product (SMP), extracellular polymeric substance (EPS), FTIR, gel permission chromatography (GPC) and particle size distribution (PSD) analyses were also carried out for MBR system. The results showed that the MBR with PSf membrane had higher hydrophobic organic compounds which resulted in formation of larger flocs in MBR. However, in this MBR had high compressibility coefficient of cake layer was higher (n=0.91) compared to MBR with PVDF/PVP membrane (n=0.8); hence, the fouling was more profound. GPC analysis revealed that compounds with molecular weight lower than 2 kDa are more formed on PSf membrane more than PVDF/PVP membrane. The results of FTIR analysis confirmed the presence of polysaccharide and protein compounds on the cake layer of both membranes which was in good agreement with EPS analysis. In addition, the results showed that their concentration was higher for the cake on PSf membrane.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.9
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• pp.497-503
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• 2016

Eco-friendly biocide that do not have noxious chemicals, have a role of disinfection adding of dispersion and strengthening peer power on RO membranes surfaces. Eco-friendly biocide show an 93% improvement of differential pressures arrival time. Also, eco-friendly biocide's Autopsy result show less the percentage of organic pollutants than currently in using biocide. Adding dispersion & peeling strength power to remove the microorganisms is upgrading. Eco-friendly biocide that have a dispersion and peering power is non-toxicant chemicals and is safe for user.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.205-212
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• 2011

Reverse osmosis (RO) technology has developed over the past 40 years to control a 44% market share in the world desalting production capacity and an 80% share in the total number of desalination plants installed worldwide. The application of conventional and low-pressure membrane pretreatment processes to seawater RO (SWRO) desalination has undergone accelerated development over the past decade. Reliable pretreatment techniques are required for the successful operation of SWRO processes, since a major issue is membrane fouling associated with particulate matter/colloids, organic/inorganic compounds, and biological growth. While conventional pretreatment processes such as coagulation and granular media filtration have been widely used for SWRO, there has been an increased tendency toward the use of ultrafiltration/microfiltration (UF/MF) instead of conventional treatment techniques. The literature shows that both the conventional and the UF/MF membrane pretreatment processes have different advantages and disadvantages. This review suggests that, depending on the feed water quality conditions, the suitable integration of multiple pretreatment processes may be considered valid since this would utilize the benefits of each separate pretreatment.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.767-773
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• 2011

The objectives of this research are to investigate the proper coagulation conditions which are a type and doses of coagulants, mixing conditions (velocity gradients and mixing times), pH and so on through Jar-test, to evaluate the flux variations, permeate, backwashing according to characteristics of pretreatment of the wastewater by means of MF membranes for river maintenance water reuse. The effluent water from B-city K-sewage treatment plant are used for this research. Turbidity and suspended solids(SS) are 14.2 NTU and 10.4 mg/L respectively. This condition causes fouling for membrane process. The flux decline could be reduced when coagulation pretreatment was carried out. Optimal coagulations PAC which are commonly used in the sewage treatment plant was observed in this research. The results indicate that an optimal coagulation dose and pH are 80 ppm and pH of 7 respectively, but coagulation efficiency was lower at strong acid or strong base. Results showed that continuous and steady operations in membrane separation process by means of the effective removal of organic matter and turbidity with coagulation pretreatment of sewage secondary effluent were achieved.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.411-421
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• 2017

Forward osmosis (FO) is an emerging technology which can possibly make the desalination process more cost and energy efficient. One of the major factors impeding its growth is the lack of an appropriate draw solute. The present study deals with the identification of potential draw solutes, and rank them. The comparison was carried out among ten draw solutes on the basis of four main parameters namely; water flux, reverse salt diffusion, flux recovery and cost. Each draw solute was given three 24 hour runs; corresponding to three different concentrations; and their flux and reverse salt diffusion values were calculated. A fresh membrane was used every time except for the fourth time which was the flux recovery experiment conducted for the lowest concentration and the change of flux and reverse salt diffusion values from the initial run was noted. The organic solutes inspected were urea and tartaric acid which showed appreciable values in other parameters viz. reverse salt diffusion, flux recovery and cost although they generated a lower flux. They ranked 5th and 8th respectively. All the experimented draw solutes were ranked based on their values corresponding to each of the four main parameters chosen for comparison and Ammonium sulfate was found to be the best draw solute.

• 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 $4^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.633-640
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• 2008

In this research, the $3.6m^3/day$ scale pilot plant consisting preozonation, coagulation, flocculation, and ceramic membrane processes was operated for long term period to evaluate the validity of ceramic membrane filtration process for treating lake water containing high concentration manganese. The higher concentration of dissolved manganese($Mn^{2+}$) was effectively oxidized to the bigger insoluble colloidal manganese ($MnO^2$) by 1~2 mg/L ozone. The colloidal manganese reacted with coagulant (poly aluminium chloride, PAC) and then formed the big floc. Ceramic membrane rejected effectively manganese floc during membrane filtration. Dissolved organic carbon(DOC) removal was dependent upon $Mn^{2+}$ concentration. While average $Mn^{2+}$ concentration was 0.43 and 0.85 mg/L in raw water, DOC removal rate in preozonation was 26.5 and 13.5%, respectively. The decrease rate of membrane permeability was faster without preozonation than with preozonation while membrane fouling decreased with NOM oxidation by ozone. In conclusion, raw water containing high concentration of manganese can be effectively treated in preozonation-coagulation-ceramic membrane filtration system.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.121-126
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• 2010

An amperometric ascorbic acid selective sensor utilizing the transfer reaction of proton liberated from the dissociation of ascorbic acid in aqueous solution across an elliptic micro-hole water/organic gel interface is demonstrated. This redox inactive sensing platform offers an alternative way for the detection of ascorbic acid to avoid a fouling effect which is one of the major concerns in redox based sensing systems. The detection principle is simply measuring the current change with respect to the assisted transfer of protons by a proton selective ionophore (e.g., ETH 1778) across the micro-hole interface between the water and the polyvinylchloride-2-nitrophenyloctylether gel phase. The assisted transfer reaction of protons generated from ascorbic acid across the polarized micro-hole interface was first characterized using cyclic voltammetry. An improved sensitivity for the quantitative analysis of ascorbic acid was achieved using differential pulse stripping voltammetry with a linear response ranging from 1 to $100\;{\mu}M$ concentrations of ascorbic acid. As a demonstration, the developed sensor was applied for analyzing the content of vitamin-C in different types of commercial pharmaceutical tablets and syrups, and a satisfactory recovery from these samples were also obtained.