• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.371-380
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• 2013

Though MBR process has many advantages, the greatest risk factors in operating MBR process are occurrence of membrane fouling and decrease of flux. It is very difficult to find exact mechanism due to complex influence by many effects, although there have been recently many studies of membrane fouling. The purposes of this study are firstly evaluating bioreactor of lab-scale and micro-filtration hollow fiber membrane, secondly investigating correlation between foulants affecting membrane performance and membrane fouling, and lastly evaluating various parameters affecting fouling and applicability of membrane fouling reducer. This study found that TMP was increasing rapidly and showed 0.32 bar and the average of flux was 88 LMH. EPS concentration tends not to change much above MLSS concentration (6,000 mg/L). However, EPS concentration variation is wide below MLSS concentration (6,000 mg/L). Also, from results of membrane surface condition and element analysis using SEM/EDX, carbon and fluorine were founded to be the highest percentage in membrane because of characteristics of membrane material. In operating continuously, inorganic fouling was generated by increase of these inorganic substances such as $Al^{3+}$ and $Mg^{2+}$. Lastly, the best filtration performance was obtained for 0.03 mg MFR/mg MLSS by results of particle size, zeta potential, $SCOD_{cr}$, EPS and MLSS concentration.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.948-954
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• 2008

Membrane bioreactor(MBR) processes have been widely applied to wastewater treatment for last decades due to its excellent capability of solid-liquid separation. However, membrane fouling was considered as a limiting factor in wide application of the MBR process. Excess aeration into membrane surface is a common way to control membrane fouling in most MBR. However, the excessively supplied air is easily dissipated in the reactor, which results in consuming energy and thus, it should be modified for effective control of membrane fouling. In this study, cylindrical tube was introduced to MBR in order to use the supplied air effectively. Membrane fibers were immersed into the cylindrical tube. This makes the supplied air non-dissipated in the reactor so that membrane fouling could be controlled economically. Two different air supplying method was employed and compared each other; nozzle and porous diffuser which were located just beneath the membrane module. Transmembrane pressure(TMP) was monitored as a function of airflow rate, flux, and ratio of the tube area and cross-sectioned area of membrane fibers(A$_m$/A$_t$). Flow rate of air and liquid was regulated to obtain slug flow in the cylindrical tube. With the same flow of air supply, nozzle was more effective for controlling membrane fouling than porous diffuser. Accumulation of sludge was observed in the tube with the nozzle, if the air was not suppled sufficiently. Reduction of membrane fouling was dependent upon the ratio, A$_m$/A$_t$. For diffuser, membrane fouling was minimized when A$_m$/A$_t$ was 0.27, but 0.55 for nozzle.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.602-608
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• 2005

A laboratory-scale experiment was conducted to investigate control of soluble microbial products (SMP) by the internal recycle rate in the submerged membrane separation activated sludge process. The internal recycle rate of the reactor RUN 1 and RUN 2 were 100 % and 200 %, respectively. SMP concentration was rapidly accumulated in the reactor (RUN 1). The variation of accumulated SMP concentration was related to the denitrification rate at the beginning experiment however SMP concentration decreased without correlatively to the denitrification rate during long operation time. The microbial kinetic model was rapidly presented in the both microbial growth and extinction in the reactor (RUN 1). In the SMP kinetic model, Internal recycle rate is the lower, value of UAP and BAP which SMP matter were presented low. The study about development of kinetic model is relatively well adjusted to the experiment exception SMP. In the future, SMP formation equation must be thought that continually research is necessary.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.365-369
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• 2004

Submerged membrane bio-reactor equipped with a hollow fiber microfiltration was applied to reuse weaving wastewater of water jet loom, where two parameters such as the concentration of MLSS and the flux were controlled. While the flux at the concentration of MLSS around 900mg/L was constantly kept over 0.4m/d and 0.8m/d in a short time, the stable flux at around 300mg/L of MLSS was shown at the 8 days later. Regardless of MLSS and flux, BOD, CODcr and Turbidity of the permeate were 1~2mg/L, 7~10mg/L and below 1 NTU, which were 85~90%, 87~90% and 98% of removal efficiency, respectively. The stable operation without fouling was achieved because the contents of ECP were smaller than those of common MBR processes and the composition(saccharide/protein) was kept constantly. In this study, 0.5~1.0m/d of flux and 400~900mg/L of MLSS were considered as the most recommendable operating condition for the reuse of weaving wastewater.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.865-870
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• 2006

The behavior and influence of EPS on membrane fouling by changing of hydraulic retention time was investigated, using lab. scale submerged membrane bio-reactor, which was operated with gravitational filtration and fed supernatant of primary sedimentation in waste water treatment plant as influent. The membrane was adopted micro-filter of polyethylene hollow fiber. EPS was analysed as polysaccharides and protein especially, into soluble and bound EPS separately. The concentration of soluble EPS was increased at short HRT, then membrane fouling was rapidly progressed and flux was depressed. The most of EPS clogged membrane pore were polysaccharides, while protein was important parameter affected on membrane fouling because of it's more accumulating in the more term operating.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.645-652
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• 2016

A membrane module including grid was designed and introduced to MBR (membrane bio-reactor) for the purpose of better control of membrane fouling. It could be anticipated that the grid enhances the shear force of fluid-air mixture into the membrane surface by even-distributing the fluid-air to the membrane module. As MLSS concentration, packing density which is expressed in the ratio of the housing and the cross-sectional area of membrane fibers ($A_m/A_t$) and air-flow rate were changed, membrane foulings were checked by monitoring fouling resistances. The total fouling resistance ($R_c+R_f$) without grid installation (i.e., control) was $2.13{\times}10^{12}m^{-1}$, whereas it was reduced to $1.69{\times}10^{12}m^{-1}$ after the grid was installed. Regardless of the grid installation, the $R_c+R_f$ increased as the packing density increased from 0.09 to 0.28, however, the increment of resistance for the grid installation was less than that of the control. Increase in the air flow rate did not always guarantee the reduction of fouling resistance, indicating that the higher air flow rate can partially de-flocculate the activated sludge flocs, which led to severer membrane fouling. Consequently, installation of grids inside the housing have brought a beneficial effect on membrane fouling and optimum air flow rate is important to keep the membrane lowering fouling.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.216-222
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• 2019

In this study, permeation experiments were conducted using naturally circulating spherical beads, backwashable plate membrane and the air supplied from the bottom of the MBR. The activated sludge solution was maintained at 8,000 mg/L of MLSS and compared transmembrane pressure (TMP) with respect to FR (filtration and relaxation), FR/BW (filtration and relaxation/backwashing), SFCO (sinusoidal filtration continuous operation) and SFCO/BW (sinusoidal filtration continuous operation/backwashing). As the backwashing flux decreased from 47 to $14L/m^2{\cdot}hr$, the TMP increased generally, but the TMP of FR system increased significantly comparing with SFCO. In addition, the backwashing method reduced more TMP comparing to the cleaning method using spherical beads, and it was confirmed that the operation method using the spherical beads and the backwashing simultaneously is more effective than each method.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.465-474
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• 2022

The suction pressure was measured with respect to operational time by the backwashable flat sheet membrane module in membrane bioreactor (MBR). The membrane module having the nominal pore size of 0.2 ㎛ and the effective membrane area of 128cm² was submerged in MLSS 8,000 mg/L active sludge aqueous solution. The suction pressure was observed with respect to permeation flux and the quorum quenching (QQ) treatment. The effects of FR and SFCO operation methods were compared and analyzed in the experimental groups: vacant bead (VB), BH4 and DKY-1 beads. The suction pressure reduction was the most effective for the permeation flux 40 L/m² ⋅h with the injection of DKY-1 QQ beads. Also, the suction pressure reduction by the backwashing method was more than twice for using DKY-1 QQ beads.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.439-446
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• 2009

This study was performed to evaluate SND(simultaneous nitrification and denitrification)efficiency, nitrogen removal efficiency and filtration function of non-woven fabric by using submerging MBR packed with granular sulfur covered with non-woven fabric filter. Synthetic wastewater was used as influent wastewater. Concentration of $NH_4{^+}-N$ in influent was maintained about 40 mg/L and the experiment was performed in four phases according to the flow rate. Nitrogen loading rate divided four phases ranging from $0.04 kg\;NH_4{^+}-N/m^3-day$ to $0.16 kg\;NH_4{^+}-N/m^3-day$. As a result, the maximum $NH_4{^+}-N$ removal rate was accomplished at $0.142 kg\;NH_4{^+}-N/m^3-day$ in nitrogen loading of $0.147 kg\;NH_4{^+}-N/m^3-day$. Nitrification efficiency was higher than 95% in all phases. $NO_3{^-}-N$ loading rate was adjusted ranging from $0.22 kg\;NO_3{^-}-N/m^3-day$ to $0.89 kg\;NO_3{^-}-N/m^3-day$. The maximum $NO_3{^-}-N$ removal rate was accomplished up to $0.71 kg\;NO_3{^-}-N/m^3-day$ in $NO_3{^-}-N$ loading of $0.89 kg\;NO_3{^-}-N/m^3-day$. The maximum $NO_3{^-}-N$ removal efficiency was 95% in $NO_3{^-}-N$ loading of $0.22 kg\;NO_3{^-}-N/m^3-day$. T-N removal rate was 90% and concentration of T-N in effluent was 3.7 mg/L in T-N loading rate of $0.039 kg\;NO_3{^-}-N/m^3-day$. In this study, TMP in reactor with and without non-woven fabric filter were observed to define fouling of hollow-fiber membrane module. Reaching time to standard washing pressure(22 cm Hg) of two reactors were 29 days with non-woven fabric But the reactor without non-woven fabric reached standard washing pressure only after 4 days. Accordingly, non-woven fabric was demonstrated the superiority as a filtration ability. With high nitrogen removal rate and decreasing of fouling of membrane, MBR packed with granular sulfur covered with non-woven fabric filter submerging in activated sludge aeration tank can be used as an advanced treatment process.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.679-685
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• 2002

The objective of this study was investigated for the microbial community structure and treatment performance of domestic wastewater in lab-scale submerged membrane bioreactor operated with anoxic-oxic cycles. Respiratory quinone profiles were applied as tools for identifying different bacterial populations. The cycle time program of bioreactor was control under anoxic/oxic of 60/90 minutes with an hydraulic retention time of 8.4 hrs. The average $COD_{Cr}$ removal efficiency of domestic wastewater was as high as 93%. The results showed complete nitrification of $NH_4^+$-N generated during oxic period and up to 50% of the total nitrogen could be denitrified. The dominant quinone types of suspended microorganisms in bioreactor were ubiquinone (UQ)-8, -10, followed by menaquinone (MK)-6, and MK-7 for anoxic period, but those for oxic period were UQ-8, MK-6, followed by UQ-10 and MK-7. The microbial diversities of bioreactor at anoxic and oxic periods, calculated based on the composition of all quinones were 10.4 and 12.2-11.8, respectively. The experimental results showed that the microbial community structure in the submerged membrane bioreactor treating domestic wastewater was slightly affected by intermittent aeration.