• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.425-436
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• 2021

In this study, chemically enhanced steam cleaning(CESC) was applied as a novel and efficient method for the control of organic and inorganic fouling in ceramic membrane filtration. The constant filtration regression model and the resistance in series model(RISM) were used to investigate the membrane fouling mechanisms. For total filtration, the coefficient of determination(R²) with an approximate value of 1 was obtained in the intermediate blocking model which is considered as the dominant contamination mechanism. In addition, most of the coefficient values showed similar values and this means that the complex fouling was formed during the filtration period. In the RISM, R _c/R _f increased about 4.37 times in chemically enhanced steam cleaning compared to physical backwashing, which implies that the internal fouling resistance was converted to cake layer resistance, so that the membrane fouling hardly to be removed by physical backwashing could be efficiently removed by chemically enhanced steam cleaning. The results of flux recovery rate showed that high-temperature steam may loosen the structure of the membrane cake layer due to the increase in diffusivity and solubility of chemicals and finally enhance the cleaning effect. As a consequence, it is expected that chemically enhanced steam cleaning can drastically improve the efficiency of membrane filtration process when the characteristics of the foulant are identified.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.1467-1474
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• 2016

In response to the water shortage problem, continued attempts are being made to secure consistent and reliable water sources. Among various solutions to this problem, wastewater effluent is an easy way to secure the necessary supply, since its annual output is consistent. Furthermore, wastewater effluent has the advantage of being able to serve various purposes, such as cleaning, sprinkling, landscaping, river management, irrigation, and industrial applications. Therefore, this study presents the possible use of reclaimed industrial wastewater treated with Birm filters and a UF membrane, along with an analysis on membrane fouling. The preprocessing stage, part of the reclamation process, used Birm filters to minimize membrane fouling. Since this study did not consider heavy metal levels in the treated water, the analyses did not include the criterion for irrigation water quality. However, the wastewater reclaimed by using Birm filters and a UF membrane met every other requirement for reclaimed water quality standards. This indicated that the treated water could be used for cleaning, channel flow for maintenance, recreational purposes, and industrial applications. The analysis on the fouling of the Birm filter and UF membrane required the study of the composition and recovery rate of the membrane. According to SEM and EDX analyses of the UF membrane, carbon and oxygen ion composition amounted to approximately 57%, whereas inorganic matter was not detected. Furthermore, the difference in the recovery rates of the distressed membrane between acidic and alkaline cleaning was more than ~78%, which indicated that organic rather than inorganic matter contributed to membrane fouling.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.753-761
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• 2005

In this study, pretreatment of organic matters with $MIEX^{(R)}$ was evaluated using bench-scale experimental procedures on four organic matters to determine its effect on subsequent UF membrane filtration. For comparison, coagulation process was also used as a pretreatment of UF membrane filtration. Moreover, the membrane fouling potential was identified using different fractions and molecular weights of organic matters. From the removal property of MW organic matters by coagulation process for the sample water NOM and AOM, the removal efficiency of high MW organic matters were much higher than those of low MW organic matters. It was shown that the removal efficiency of high MW organic matter more than 10 kDa was lower than that of low MW organic matter for $MIEX^{(R)}$ process. For the change of permeate flux by the pretreatment process, $MIEX^{(R)}$+UF process showed high removal efficiency of organic matter as compared with coagulation-UF processes, but high reduction rate of permeate flux was presented through the reduction of removal efficiency of high MW organic matter. From sequential filtration test results in order to examine the effect of MW of organic matter on membrane fouling, it was found that the membrane foulant was occurred by high MW organic matter, and the DOC of organic matter less than 0.5 mg/L was working as the membrane foulant. In the case of sample water composed of low MW organic matter less than 10 kDa, since the low MW organic matter less than 10 kDa has high removal efficiency by $MIEX^{(R)}$, low reduction rate of permeate flux is obtained as compared with coagulation-UF processes. In summary, it is required to conduct the research on physical/chemical characteristic of original water before pretreatment process of membrane process is selected, and a pertinent pre-treatment process should be employed based on the physical/chemical characteristic of original water.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.114-118
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• 2005

• Membrane Journal
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.120-126
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• 2010

In this study, the effect of surface deposition of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles at polyethersulfone (PES) microfiltraiton (MF) membrane on humic acid fouling was investigated. The effect was observed as a function of crystal structures of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles and solution chemistries including pH and divalent cation such as calcium. Our results showed clearly that $TiO_2$-deposited membrane could mitigate membrane fouling significantly. However, this effect was observed to be dependent upon crystal structures of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles and solution chemistries. In the absence of calcium, fouling mitigation was less pronounced for both anatase and hybrid $TiO_2$-deposited membrane than for rutile $TiO_2$-deposited membrane while opposite trend was observed after addition of calcium. In the presence of calcium, the adsorption of humic acid to $TiO_2$-deposited membrane can be reduced by electrostatic repulsions between humic acid and $TiO_2$ surface. Addition of calcium provided further beneficial effect on fouling mitigation particularly at higher pH for the anatase $TiO_2$ deposited membrane, implying that both increased hydrophilicity due to $TiO_2$ nanoparticles and negative surface charge of the membrane should affect fouling mitigation. However, rutile $TiO_2$ having more inertness generally than the anatase $TiO_2$ showed relatively robust effect on the fouling mitigation regardless of solution properties.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.205-211
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• 2016

Performance of pyrophyllite-based ceramic membranes newly developed were investigated. Membrane fouling caused by microbial suspensions taken from a full-scaled MBR system at domestic wastewater treatment plant was observed at different airflow rate and distance between each membrane. For the pyrophyllite support, pore size was about $1.0{\mu}m$, but surface coating with $Al_2O_3$ solution decreased the pore size with the reduction of the pure water permeability. With the MLSS taken from the full-scaled MBR system (6 g/L), the fouling rate was decreased by increasing airflow rate under $20L/m^2{\cdot}hr$ of setpoint flux. However, the effectiveness of the airflow rate on the fouling control depends strongly upon the gap between each membrane. At fixed airflow rate, the fouling rate was decreased by increasing the gap between each pyrophyllite membrane. Nevertheless, further increasing the membrane distance from 3.5 to 5.4 cm resulted in higher fouling rate. Similar result was observed with the $Al_2O_3$ coated-pyrophyllite membrane. Nevertheless, the fouling rate was lower with the coated membrane than that observed with the uncoated pyrophyllite support. Regardless of surface coating, the suspended solids were removed almost completely and the surface coating on the pyrophyllite support improved organic rejection with PEG solution (MW : 8000 kDa) tested.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.77-83
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• 2017

Transient behavior of fouling resistance was observed with a laboratory-scaled, submerged microfiltration membrane system treating high-turbidity source water consisting of inorganic silica particles and humic acid. Fouling mitigation efficiency with inorganic silica particles caused by aeration was reduced significantly as both humic acid and calcium ion existed together. Scanning electron microscopic observations showed that humic acid was adsorbed onto the surface of inorganic silica particles in the presence of calcium. Turbidity removal was achieved almost completely by submerged MF system regardless of feed compositions. However, the $UV_{254}$ removal of humic acid was improved in the presence of both calcium and inorganic silica particles. Additionally, increasing air-flow rate tended to increase $UV_{254}$ removal efficiency higher than 80%. This may be caused by back-transport of humic acid enhanced by inorganic silica particles providing surface for organic adsorption in the presence of calcium.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.219-228
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• 2003

This study was carried to investigate the effect of humic acid and kaloin which cause the turbidity and organic substance component for optimization of drinking water treatment process using the membrane separation. Also we were ovserved the optimum operating condition which flux was stabilized, while specific resistance value in membrane was minimized. As the result, the membrane separation was operated at low specific resistance value with the increase of the pressure. And then, cake load decreased by high velocity with the increase of the linear velocity, and the tendency in which specific resistance value and flux increased. Therefore, we confirmed the optimum operating condition as pressure $2.0 kgf/cm^2,$ 0.92 m/sec linear velocity.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.981-987
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• 2011

Biologically treated water contains a large quantity of organic matters and microorganisms which can cause various problems to membrane. The membrane fouling occurred by these reasons is hard to control by single physical cleaning. This study analyzes the efficiency of aeration with chemical backwashing and foulants removal during chemical backwashing. The cleaning efficiency improves when the chemical concentration is high and the contact time of chemical is long. Chemical backwashing with aeration shows exceptional cleaning efficiency which leads the physical cleaning is required during chemical backwashing since it forms flow inside the membrane submerged tank. From the foulants removal analysis, the particles such as turbidity and TOC removal rate increase when the aeration is applied. Dissolved matter of DOC and UV254 removal is dependent on higher chemical concentration. According to FTIR analysis, one of major foulants, the polysaccharide is controlled by the chemical backwashing with aeration condition.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.595-601
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• 2010

It is evident that Korea will continue its battle with water shortage and alternative program are being taken into action. One of the main actions is reusing 1,800 tons of effluent of 357 sewage treatment plant located nationwide. Therefore this study supplemented ozone oxidation methods that would increase the efficiency of organic oxidation and coagulation. Through this method, fouling will be controled sufficiently by preventing membrane process in the system for advanced sewage treatment. In this study, ozone-coagulation-microfiltration membrane were used. The final removal efficiency of the pretreated water from the result of the ozone-coagulation were 50% of CODcr, 38% of TP and 11% of TOC respectively. Water quality treatment has decreased about 80% for TP. Ozone-coagulation-microfiltration membrane maintains the high flux while decreasing the number of organic matter and the membrane fouling, and reducing the TP. As a result, in order to reuse the water from the sewage, the ozone-coagulation-microfiltration membrane type must be considered in order to achieve the best efficiency.