• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.303-310
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• 2017

Pressure retarded osmosis(PRO) has attracted much attention as potential technology to reduce the overall energy consumption for reverse osmosis(RO) desalination. The RO/PRO hybrid process is considered as the most logical next step for future desalination. The PRO process aims to harness the osmotic energy difference of two aqueous solutions separated by a semipermeable membrane. By using the concentrated water(RO brine) discharged from existing RO plants, the PRO process can effectively exploit a greater salinity gradient to reduce the energy cost of processing concentrated water. However, in order to use RO brine as the draw solution, PRO membrane must have high water flux and enough mechanical strength to withstand the high operational pressure. This study investigates the development of a thin film composite PRO membrane and spiral wound module for high power density. Also, the influence of membrane backing layer on the overall power density was studied using the characteristic factors of PRO membranes. Finally, the performance test of an 8-inch spiral wound module was carried out under various operating conditions(i.e. hydraulic pressure, flow rate, temperature). As the flow rate and temperature increased under the same hydraulic pressure, the PRO performance increased due to the growth of water permeability coefficient and osmotic pressure. For a high performance PRO system, in order to optimize the operating conditions, it is highly recommended that the flow pressure be minimized while the flow rate is maintained at a high level.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.277-286
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• 2007

The technology of seawater desalination has been received much attentions to solve the problem of water shortage through all over the world. In this study, it attempts to confirm the use-possibility of cellulose triacetate (CTA) for preparation of reverse osmosis membranes which have been highlighted as high efficiency and low energy consumption process for seawater desalination. The effects of casting dope parameters like an acetyl content, solvent, additives on the membrane performance were investigated. It was possible to produce the membranes which have high water flow rate and salt rejection with the increase of acetyl content and dioxane content among various dioxane/acetone ratios. Acetic acid and maleic acid were preferred for additives to produce high performance membranes. It was verified that $HOLLOSEP^{(R)}$ module which is commercialized CTA membrane by TOYOBO Co. can produce stable water production and high-quality water for long-term operation in the practice plants without any chemical treatments.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.401-406
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• 2016

In this study, we have investigated the removal of the low level radioactive ions of Cs and I in water by the reverse osmosis (RO) process. The two RO modules produced in domestic region and the waste RO module after the cleaning process were selected. Then we compared removal performance of both Cs and I. The experiments are conducted by varying the concentration of feed, the pressure. As a results, it was confirmed that all three modules are higher I decontamination factor than Cs. And particularly, for the cleaned RO module, its decontamination factor of I was 1140. Since the results at low pressure condition were better than that at high pressure conditions, the use of the direct installation of RO modules on the tap water might be possible. In addition, it was confirmed that the waste RO module after cleaning process using EDTA, SBS and NaOH, increased the decontamination performance better than before cleaning, in particular, the recovery ratio after cleaning was 6.3% higher.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.68-74
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• 2014

In the spiral wound module of the pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) system for the salinity gradient power generation, effects of the inlet pressure differences between feed-channel and draw-channel were studied. Fluxes of water and solute through membrane and power were estimated. The water flux through membrane decreased along the x-direction and increased along the y-direction with the increase of inlet pressure differences between two channels. On the other hand, the solute flux through membrane showed the opposite trend. The concentration of flow in the feed-channel increased a lot along the y-direction and that in the draw-channel decreased along the x-direction. In our system, for the inlet pressure differences of 1~11 atm, the flow rate in the feed-channel decreased about 8~13% and that in the draw-channel increased by the same amount. The power density increased and then decreased with the increasing inlet pressure difference.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.111-121
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• 2019

An organic citrate series draw solute was synthesized using diethyl malonate for forward osmosis. The structure of the final compound potassium pentane-1,3,3,5-tetracarboxylate was confirmed by $^1H-NMR$ and $^{13}C-NMR$ analysis. Osmotic pressure, solubility, water permeability and reverse salt flux were measured for the properties of the draw solute. Forward osmosis results showed that the draw solute exhibited higher water flux than other draw solutes of trisodium citrate and tripotassium citrate. Reverse salt flux of all the organic daw solutes was much lower than that of NaCl. The osmotic pressure of the synthesized draw solute was 25% lower than that of NaCl. The solubility of the draw solute was 317 g/ 100 g water, which is 8.8 times higher than that of NaCl. A commercialized nanofiltration membrane was used for the recovery of the draw solute. The draw solute could be effectively recovered at low pressure.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.117-120
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• 2004

The separation characteristics were investigated with the variations of pressure and temperature using ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis membrane module sets composed of different membrane types and materials. TDS, T-N and COD removal efficiencies were not affected and low with the change of temperature and pressure in case of using UF modules contained in module set 1, 2, 3. TDS, T-N and COD removal efficiencies were very high in RO modules. The final water quality of acrylic wastewater was satisfied within the discharge limit value of plant wastewater. It was known that membrane module sets could be used for the reuse of wastewater.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.60-66
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• 2005

When external pressure higher than osmosis pressure is reversely derived into solution, its solvent is moved into the solution having lower concentration, which is called 'reverse osmosis'. We investigated the desalination application of deep ocean water using reverse osmosis pressure of $40-70\;kgf/cm^2$ We observed how to operational factor j like flow rate, water temperature and pressure have effect on efficiency of reverse osmosis membrane and salts rejection. Fluxes of reverse osmosis membrane are directly proportional to water temperature and pressure. However, salts rejection rates are positively correlated with pressure and inversely proportional to water temperature. Separation efficiencies of osmosis membrane for major elements such as $Mg^{2+},\;Ca^{+2},\;Na^+\;and\;K^+$ are as follows in a strong electrolysis solution like seawater; $Ca^{2+},\;Mg^{2+}>K^+>Na^+$. Rejection rates of $Mg^{2+}\;and\;Ca^{2+}$ that have high electric charges are over 99% and show positively correlation with water temperature. Rejection rates of $Na^+$ having low electric charge is observed to be 98%-99%, which rates is much lower than those of $2^+$ charged ions like $Ca^{2+}\;and\;Mg^{2+}$. Ion rejection rates of boron, B, are much low because boron is present il free state or gas phase in seawater. Boron concentration in desalination water is over criteria of Korean drinking water, 0.3 mg/L. However, we could satisfied with the criteria of drinking water under the operation condition like temperature $5^{\circ}C$ and pressure $70kgf/cm^2$, using the relationship that rejection rates of boron is proportional to pressure and is inversely proportional to water temperature

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.235-250
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• 2014

The impacts of membrane degradation due to chlorine attack on the rejection of inorganic salts and trace organic contaminants by nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes were investigated in this study. The rejection of trace contaminants was examined at environmentally relevant concentrations. Changes in the membrane surface morphology were observed as a result of chlorine exposure. A small increase in rejection was consistently observed with all four membranes selected in this study after being exposed to a low concentration of hypochlorite (100 ppm). In contrast, a higher concentration of hypochlorite (i.e., 2000 ppm) could be detrimental to the membrane separation capacity. Membranes with severe chlorine impact showed a considerable decrease in rejection over filtration time, possibly due to rearrangement of the polyamide chains under the influence of chlorine degradation and filtration pressure. The reported results indicate that loose NF membranes are more sensitive to chlorine exposure than RO membranes. The impact of hypochlorite exposure (both positive and negative) on rejection is dependent on the strength of the hypochlorite solution and is more significant for the neutral carbamazepine compound than the negatively charged sulfamethoxazole.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.553-559
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• 2016

There has been increasing global interest in the environmental pollution problems produced by fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In order to tackle these issues, new renewable energy such as solar, wind, bio gas, fuel cell and pressure retarded osmosis(PRO) have been developed extensively. Among these energy sources, PRO is one of the salinity gradient power generation methods. In PRO, energy is obtained by the osmotic pressure generated from the concentration difference between high and low concentration solutions separated by a semipermeable membrane. The development for high power density PRO membranes is imperative with the purpose of commercialization. This study investigates development of thin film composite PRO membrane and spiral wound module for high power density. Also, the influence of membrane backing layer on power density was identified, and the characteristic factors of PRO membranes was determined. Different backing layers were used to improve power density. As expected, the PRO membrane with more porous backing layer showed higher power density.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.11-14
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• 1998

1. Introduction : Research progresses in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering have been made during the last decades with important contributions to the industrial development and to the quality of our life. An interesting case is related to the membrane science and technology continuous impact to innovative processes and products, particularly appropriate for a sustainable industrial growth. Membrane operations have been familiar for many years to biologists and chemists working in their laboratorier or studying biological phenomena. Only recently engineers started to operate in' this area. The preparation of asymmetric CA membranes at University of California, Los Angeles in the early 60s is generally recognized as a crucial moment for membranology (1). Loeb and Sourirajan with their discovery of how to increase significantly the permeability of polymeric membranes without significant changes in their selectivity, made realistic the possibility of their use in large scale operations for desalting brackish and sea water by reverse osmosis and for various other molecular separations in different industrial areas. Reverse osmosis is today a well recognized basic unit operations, togheter with ultrafiltration, crossflow microfiltration,. nanofiltration, all pressure driven membrane processes. Already in 1992 more than 4 milIions m$^3$/day were the total capacity of RO desalination plants and in 1995 more than 180.000 m$^2$ of ultrafiltration membranes were installed for the treatment of wheys and milk (2) (3).