• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.799-806
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• 2005

Applying coagulation process before membrane filtration showed not only reducing membrane fouling, but also improving the removal of dissolved organic materials that might otherwise not be removed by the membrane alone. Also, slow mixing didn't affect the reduction of membrane fouling, and rapid mixing using an in-line static mixer was more effective than using backmixer. In addition, only 11 percent of dissolved organic matter in raw water was the primary cause of fouling. Furthermore, tile primary foulant of UF membrane was hydrophobic substance, which can easily be removed by coagulation.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.185-199
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• 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.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2001.07a
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• pp.133-154
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• 2001

• Membrane Journal
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.185-188
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• 2013

This study was carried out for microfiltration tubular membrane module equipped with self-designed air injection nozzle in order to determine the permeate flux due to the effect of membrane fouling reduction. The 0.1 wt% yeast particle solution was used as a feed solution and permeation tests were performed for the cases with and without air injection. Permeation fluxes were measured and analyzed to examine the effect of membrane fouling reduction. While the permeation flux without air injection decreased continuously, that with air injection was improved more than 30 percent than that of no air injection case.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.97-109
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• 2020

Membrane fouling is the main drawback of membrane technology. Frequent membrane cleaning and membrane replacement are, therefore, required to reduce membrane fouling that causes permeate flux reduction, lower rejection, or higher operating pressure. Studies have proved that the alteration of membrane properties is the key controlling factor in lessening membrane fouling. Among stimuli-responsive membranes, thermo-responsive membrane is the most popular, with a drastic phase transition and swelling-shrinking behavior caused by the temperature change. In this study, the thermo-responsive ability of two commercial membranes, PolyCera® Titan membrane and PolyCera® Hydro membrane, at different temperatures was studied on the antifouling function of the membrane in palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment. The evaluation of the membrane's thermo-responsive ability was done through three cycles of adsorption (fouling) and desorption (defouling) processes in a membrane filtration process. The experimental result depicted that PolyCera® Hydro membrane had a higher membrane permeability of 67.869 L/㎡.h.bar than PolyCera® Titan membrane at 46.011 L/㎡.h.bar. However, the high membrane permeability of PolyCera® Hydro membrane was compensated with low removal efficiency. PolyCera® Titan membrane with a smaller mean pore size had better rejection performance than PolyCera® Hydro membrane for all tested parameters. On the other hand, PolyCera® Titan membrane had a better hydrodynamic cleaning efficiency than PolyCera® Hydro membrane regardless of the hydrodynamic cleaning temperature. The best hydrodynamic cleaning performed by PolyCera® Titan membrane was at 35℃ with the flux recovery ratio (FRR) of 99.17 ± 1.43%. The excellent thermo-responsive properties of the PolyCera® Titan membrane could eventually reduce the frequency of membrane replacement and lessen the use of chemicals for membrane cleaning. This outstanding exploration helps to provide a solution to the chemical industry and membrane technology bottleneck, which is the membrane fouling, thus reducing the operating cost incurred by the membrane fouling.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.443-452
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• 1996

Fouling is caused by sedimentation and corrosion of polymer, heavy paraffine, chemicals, heavy organics, asphaltene, etc. in the entire chemical process of heat exchanger, boiler, desalter, etc. Fouling phenomena remains a serious operating problem which results in increased energy consumption, increased pressure drops, reduction or complete loss of products yield, and increased maintenance costs. In order to calculate the separated amounts of foulants and to control the fouling process, the predictive model is developed which is based on Scott & Magat polymer solution theory, Peng-Robinson EOS, BWR EOS, and continuous and multicomponent thermodynamics.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.329-338
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• 2019

The constant-pressure and constant-flux membrane filtration experiments of alumina colloidal solution are performed to investigate defouling effect of the natural convection instability flow (NCIF) induced in membrane module. The permeate flux at constant-pressure and the transmembrane pressure (TMP) at constant-flux experiments are measured by changes the inclined angle (0, 90 and 180°) of membrane module to the gravity, and flux results are analyzed by using the blocking filtration model. NCIF are more induced as the inclined angles increased from 0° to 180°, and the maximum induced NCIF at 180° angle enhances flux to 2.8 times and reduces TMP to 85% after two-hour operation. As a result of analyzing flux data by applying the blocking filtration model, it is more reasonable to analyze them by using the intermediate blocking model within 15-minute operation time and then thereafter times by using the cake filtration model. The induced NCIF at 180° angle reduces the intermediate blocking fouling at 52% in the early operation time of 15-minute and thereafter the cake layer fouling at 93%. The main membrane fouling control mechanism of NCIF induced in membrane module is evaluated as suppressing the formation of the cake layer of particulate colloidal materials on membrane surface.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2023

A large amount of carbon monoxide (CO) is generated in circulating fluidized bed combustion, the process whereby a hot cyclone separates unburned fuel. However, calcium sulfate (CaSO₄), when combined with a high CO content, can cause fouling on the surface of the steam tube installed inside the integrated recycle heat exchangers (INTREX). In this study, CaSO₄ decomposition was investigated using 0.2-3.2 vol.% CO and 1-3 vol.% oxygen (O₂) at 850℃ for 20 min in a lab-scale fluidized bed reactor. The results show that CaSO₄ decomposes into CaS and CaO when CO gas is supplied, and SO₂ emissions increase from 135 ppm to 1021 ppm with increasing CO concentration. However, the O₂ supply delayed SO₂ emissions because the reaction between CO and O₂ is faster than that of CaSO₄; nevertheless, when supplied with CaCO₃, the intermediate product, SO₂ was significantly released, regardless of the CO and O₂ supply. In addition, agglomerated solids and yellow sulfur power were observed after solid recovery, and the reactor distributor was corroded. Consequently, a sufficient O₂ supply is important and can prevent fouling formation on the INTREX surface by suppressing CaSO₄ degradation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.1183-1191
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• 2000

Operating conditions for reduction of membrane fouling in treatment of dissolved organic matter by UF membrane process were investigated by pilot-scale plant using various operating conditions. As inlet pressure increased, increament of transmembrane pressure and flux decline were faster. The reason was due to the increase in adsorption of dissolved organic matter and the development of cake layer compression on the membrane surface. When efficient pressure (the difference of pressure between backwash and transmembrane pressures) was high, small amount of pollutant was retained on the membrane surface. When backwash was frequently conducted, low concentration of pollutant was maintained in recycling water. Therefore, backwash could be efficiently conducted with high efficient pressure and high frequency. Fouling rate was correlated with backwash and inlet pressures, recovery rate and cumulative permeated volume. Among the operating parameters backwash pressure was most closely related to fouling rate and inlet pressure was next to backwash pressure. It seems that the fouling was strongly related to pressure which leads to the cake layer compression and adsorption of dissolved organic matter.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.459-469
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• 2009

It is well known that coagulation pretreatment can reduce foulants prior to membrane filtration. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of coagulation on fouling of ceramic microfiltration membrane($0.1 {\mu}m$) using pilot plant of $150m^3/day/train$ capacity. Train A membrane system has pretreatment process of ozonation and coagulation while train B has only coagulation. Two types of coagulation operation were investigated: back mixer(rapid mixing with or without slow mixing) which is a conventional mechanically stirred mixer and an inline static mixer. Ozone dose rate for train A was 1 mg/L and ozone contact time was 12 min. The coagulation dose(PACl 10% as $Al_2O_3$) rate was changed 20~40 mg/L according to experimental schedule. In this experimental conditions, the coagulation of back mixer type with rapid mixing(GT=72,000) and slow mixing(GT=45,000) was the best effective in reduction of ceramic membrane fouling regardless preozonation. Especially, the effect of inline static mixer was sensitive to change in water quality. Ozonation mainly affected irreversible fouling rather than reversible fouling in accordance with less adsorption of NOM on the membrane surface. Thus, the increase rate of the nomalized TMP(trans membrane pressure) at $25^{\circ}C$ for train A was relatively lower than that of train B under same coagulation process with same coagulant dosage. The best performance of ceramic membrane appeared in case of combined process with ozonation, therefore this integrated process is able to archive less coagulant dosing and secure a stability of ceramic membrane system.