• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.256-267
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• 2015

The goal is to compare two different aeration strategies for a pilot scale operation of submerged microfiltration with respect to the minimization of membrane fouling. A constant aeration (65 L/min) was examined parallel with a step-wise increase in airflow rate (40 to 65 L/min). The airflow rate was stepped to a higher rate every 5 min and the step-aeration cycles were repeated at regular intervals of 15 min. The comparative filtration runs were conducted with synthetic water containing powdered activated carbon (~10 g/L) and/or kaolin (~20 g/L) at a constant flux of 80 LMH. The extent and mechanisms of fouling in the microfiltration were identified by determining hydraulic resistance to filtration and the fouling reversibility after cleaning. Results showed that the step-aeration effectively alleviated fouling in the microfiltration of synthetic water compared to when using constant aeration. A substantial decrease in fouling was achieved by combining with coagulation using aluminum salts regardless of the aeration strategies. The constant aeration resulted in increased pore blocking likely due to increased accumulation of particles on the surface of membrane.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.91-98
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• 2006

There is a possibility of the production of the air bubbles in membrane pores due to the reduction in pressure during membrane filtration. The effect of fine air bubbles from dissolved gases on microfiltration was investigated in the submerged membrane bio-reactor (SMBR). The $R_{air}$ (air bubble resistance) was defined as the filtration resistance due to the air bubbles formed from the gasification of dissolved gases. From the results of filtration tests using pure water with changes in the dissolved oxygen concentration, the air bubbles from dissolved gases were confirmed to act as a foulant and; thus, increase the filtration resistance. The standard pore blocking and cake filtration models, SPBM and CFM, respectively, were applied to investigate the mechanism of air bubble fouling on a hollow fiber membrane. However, the application of the SPBM and CFM were limited in explaining the mechanism due to the properties of air bubble. With a simple comparison of the different filtration resistances, the $R_{air}$ portion was below 1% of the total filtration resistance during sludge filtration. Therefore, the air bubbles from dissolved gases would only be a minor foulant in the SMBR. However, under the conditions of a high gasification rate from dissolved gases, the effect of air bubble fouling should be considered in microfiltration.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.92-99
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• 1996

The effects of membrane fouling on the water permeability were examined using the hollow fiber microfiltration (HMF)membrane. A membrane module with a pore size of 0.1 micron was submerged in the permeation tank and water bath. The applied pressure was 12.4 kPa for direct solid-liquid separation of activated sludge. As the concentration of MLSS(880~2180mg/l) of the feed solution increased, the decreasing rates of the water flux increased and the membrane was clogged more rapidly. The water flux through the membrane did not increase effectively even with the increase in the applied pressure(40.0~93.3kPa). When the membrane was cleaned with water, the recovery rate of water flux were larger for lower applied pressure. The results indicated that the process of direct solid-liquid separation using HMF membrane was effective at lower pressure.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.166-172
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• 2016

In this study critical permeation flux was measured by the flux-step method with respect to aeration rate. The hollow fiber membrane module which has $85cm^2$ of effective area and $0.4{\mu}m$ nominal pore size was submerged in the activated sludge solution of MLSS 5,000 mg/L. The critical flux for without aeration was measured of $15.2L/m^2{\cdot}h$. However, the critical flux increased from 20.6 to $32.5L/m^2{\cdot}h$ as the aeration rate increased from 100 to 1,000 mL/min.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.31-38
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• 2003

A pilot scale biofilter pretreatment-microfiltration system (BF-MF) was operated to investigate the effect of biofilter treatment in fouling reduction of microfiltration. Biofiltration was expected to reduce the membrane fouling by removal of turbidity and metal oxides. The hollow-fiber MF module with a nominal pore size of 0.1$\mu$m and a surface area of 8m$^2$ was submerged in a filtration tank and microfiltration was operated at a constant flux of 0.5 m/d. Biofiltration using polypropylene pellets was performed at a high filtration velocity of 320 m/d. Two experimental setups composed of MF and BF/MF, i.e., without and with biofilter pretreatment, were compared. Throughout the experimental period of 9 months, biofilter pretreatment was effective to reduce the membrane fouling, which was proved by the result of time variations of trans-membrane pressure and backwash conditions. The turbidity removal rate by biofiltration varied between 40% to 80% due to the periodic washing for biofilter contactor and raw water turbidity. In addition to turbidity, metals, especially Mn, Fe and Al were removed effectively with average removal rates of 89.2%, 67.8% and 64.9%, respectively. Further analysis of foulants on the used membranes revealed that turbidity and metal removal by biofiltration was the major effect of biofiltration pretreatment against microfiltration fouling.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 2005

This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of submerged hollow fiber MF processes to treat secondary wastewater for water reuse. Specifically, membrane productivity and filtrate water quality were investigated under various operating conditions (i.e. flux, recovery, and backwash rate) at pilot-scale. Membrane fouling became more severe with increasing flux and recovery, suggesting that low flux operation (< 25 LMH) was desirable. At high flux operating(> 37.5 LMH), increasing backwash rate showed only limited success. The biofouling, quantified by PEPA and BFHPC, was also significant in wastewater reclamation, and biogrowth control by chlorine, were necessary to improve membrane productivity. Filtrate water qualities are in good compliance with water reuse regulations regardless of operating conditions (flux, recovery and backwash rate). Particle (e.g. turbidity) removal ranged from 89 to 98%, while only 11 to 21% of organics (e.g. NPDOC) were removed by MF membrane. Only small improvement in biostability (e.g. AOC) was achieved by MF system, and thus, without post disinfection, significant microorganisms might be present in the filtrate due to regrowth. Lastly, in order to further investigate pathogen removal, controlled microbial challenge tests were performed by monitoring Giardia, Cryptosporidium, bacteria and virus, and showed relatively good microbial removal.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.311-319
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• 1999

Membrane separation process is considered as an alternative of conventional water purification system using coagulationㆍsedimentation＋sand filtration. In this study, it was examined that the application possibility of Hollowfiber Microfiltration membrane for water purification process. A $20m^3/day$ scale pilot plant was used for studying the possibility of long-term operation and the stability of water quality under the optimum conditions, 0.03m/h permeate flux, filtration for 10 minutes, pause for 2 minutes(including air-scrubbing for 30 seconds), obtained by lab-scale experiment. As a result, it was proved stability of pilot plant over one year and filtrate quality(Turbidity. SS etc). Therefore, it was proved that membrane separation process using Hollowfiber Microfiltration membrane can be applied for water purification system

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2004.02a
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• pp.12-27
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• 2004

Pretreatment process consisted of submerged hollow-fiber microfiltration(HMF) membrane and spiral-wound nanofiltration(SNF) membrane has been developed by NETEC, KHNP for the purpose of improving the impurities of liquid radioactive waste before entering Selective Ion Exchange System(SIES). The lab-scale combined system was installed at Kori NPP #2 nuclear power plant and demonstration tests using actual liquid radioactive waste were carried out to verify the performance of the combined system. The submerged HMF membrane was adopted for removal of suspended solid in liquid radioactive waste and the SNF membrane was used for removal of particulate radioisotope such as, Ag-l10m and oily waste because ion exchange resin can not remove particulate radioisotopes. The liquid waste in Waste Holdup Tank (WHT) was processed with HMF and SNF membrane, and SIES. The initial SS concentration and total activity of actual waste were 38,000ppb and $1.534{\times}10_{-3}{\mu}Ci/cc$, respectively. The SS concentration and total activity of permeate were 30ppb and lower than LLD(Lower Limit of Detection), respectively.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.521-526
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• 2006

A membrane bioreactor (MBR) is an effective tool for wastewater treatment with recycling. MBR process has several advantages over conventional activated sludge process (ASP); reliability, compactness, and quality of treated water. The resulting high-quality and disinfected effluents suggest that MBR process can be suitable for the reused and recycling of wastewater. An anoxic/oxic (A/O) type MBR was applied to simultaneous removal of organics and nutrients in sewage. At first, the efficiency of submerged MBR process was investigated using a hollow fiber microfiltration membrane with a constant flux of $10.2L/m^2{\cdot}h$ at each solids retention time (SRT). Results showed that protein/carbohydrate (P/C) ratio increased and total extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) remained constant with SRT increased. Secondly, A/O type MBR with a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane was employed to treat the municipal wastewater. The performance of A/O type MBR-RO process is better for the treatment of organics and nutrients than ASP-MF-RO process in terms of consistent effluents quality.