• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.293-308
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• 2015

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) was produced in huge amounts in Malaysia, and if it discharged into the environment, it causes a serious problem regarding its high content of nutrients and high levels of COD and BOD concentrations. This study was devoted on POME treatment and purification using an integrated process consisting of microalgae treatment followed by membrane filtration. The main objective was to find the optimum conditions as retention time and pH in the biological treatment of POME. Since after the optimum conditions there is a diverse effect of time and the process become costly. According to our knowledge, there is no existing study optimized the retention time and percentage removal of nutrients for microalgae treatment of POME wastewater. In order to achieve with optimization, a second order polynomial model regression coefficients and goodness of fit results in removal percentages of ammonia nitrogen ($NH_3-N$), orthophosphorous ($PO_4{^{-3}}$), COD, TSS, and turbidity were estimated. WinQSB technique was used to optimize the objective function of the developed model, and the optimum conditions were found. Also, ultrafiltration membrane is useful for purification of POME samples as verified by experiments.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.554-557
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• 2005

Ultrafiltration has been performed to separate proteins, which is almost unique method of protein separation in mass production scale. The problems of its low selectivity and decline in permeation flux resulted from gel formation on the membrane surface have been greatly improved by an applied electric field across the membrane. The applied electric field promoted or hindered the permeation of protein through membranes depending on the electric charge of protein molecules in aqueous solution. With the effects of electric field, the permeation flux and the selectivity of the ultrafiltration could be improved significantly.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.91-103
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• 2011

The flux behavior in the separation of equimolar bovine serum albumin (BSA) and bovine hemoglobin (HB) in aqueous solutions by cross-flow ultrafiltration (UF) was investigated, in which polyacylonitrile membrane with a molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of 100 kDa was used. BSA and HB have comparable molar mass (67,000 vs. 68,000) but different isoelectric points (4.7 vs. 7.1). The effects of process variables including solution pH (6.5, 7.1, and 7.5), total protein concentration (1.48 and 7.40 ${\mu}M$), transmembrane pressure (69, 207, and 345 kPa), and solution ionic strength (with or without 0.01 M NaCl) on the separation were examined. It was shown that the ionic strength had a negligible effect on separation performance under the conditions studied. Although BSA and HB are not rigid bodies, the flux decline in the present cross-flow UF did not result from the mechanism of cake filtration with compression. In this regard, the specific cake resistance when pseudo steady-state was reached was evaluated and discussed.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.363-375
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• 2019

Micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF) is a surfactant-based separation technique and has been investigated for the removal of heavy metals from wastewater. The performance of heavy metals removal from wastewater through MEUF relies on membrane characteristics, surfactant properties, various operational parameters including operating pressure, surfactant and heavy metal concentration, pH of the solution, temperature, and presence of dissolved solutes and salts. This study presents an overview of literature related to MEUF with respect to the all significant parameters including membranes, surfactants, operating conditions and MEUF hybrid processes. Moreover, this study illustrates that MEUF is an adaptable technique in various applications. Nowadays water contamination caused by heavy metals has become a serious concern around the globe. MEUF is a significant separation technique in wastewater treatment that should be acknowledged, for the reason that removal of heavy metals contamination even at lower concentrations becomes achievable, which is evidently made known in the presented review. Hybrid processes presented the better results as compared to MEUF. Future studies are required to continue the experimental work with various combinations of surfactant and heavy metals, and to investigate for the treatment of concentrated solutions, as well as for real industrial wastewater.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.38-49
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• 2024

Wastewater treatment using membrane bioreactors has been extensively used to alleviate water shortage and pollution by improving the quality of the treated water discharged into the environment. However, membrane biofouling persistently holds back an MBR process by reducing the process efficiency. Herein, we synthesized carbon nanospheres (CNSs) with many hydrophilic oxygen groups and utilized them as an additive to prepare high-performance ultrafiltration (UF) membranes with hydrophilicity and porous pore structure. CNSs were found to form crescent-shaped pores on the membrane surface, increasing the mean surface pore size by about 40% without causing significant defects larger than bubble points, as the CNS content increased by 4.6 wt%. In addition, the porous pore structure of CNS composite membranes was also attributable to the CNS's isotropic morphologies and relatively low particle number density because the aforementioned properties contributed to preventing the polymer solution viscosity from soaring with the loading of CNS. However, too porous structure compromised the mechanical properties, such that CNS2.3 was the best from a comprehensive consideration including the pore structure and mechanical properties. As a result, CNS2.3 showed not only 2 times higher water permeability than CNS0 but also 5 times longer operation duration until membrane cleaning was required.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.25-37
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• 2011

PES UF membranes containing silver were prepared to impart antibacterial properties for waste water treatment. Asymmetric membranes for antibacterial application were prepared from polyethersulfone (PES) and silver nitrate ($AgNO_3$) (PES/$AgNO_3$=15/2 by weight) solution in N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) via simple wet phase inversion technique. These membranes were characterized by polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) of different molecular weights (1000 ppm in water) at room temperature and on operating pressure of 5 bars. It was observed that the water flux of PES-$AgNO_3$ membrane is slightly lower than virgin PES but still increased linearly with the increment of pressure applied. The morphology of the resulting membranes was examined using Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) coupled with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS). Elemental analysis using EDS proved that silver is successfully loaded on the membrane surfaces. Due to the success of loading silver on membrane surfaces, antibacterial activities were evaluated via agar diffusion method against Escherichia coli (E.coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus) culture. By incorporating 2 wt% of silver nitrate, PES-$AgNO_3$ showed significant inhibition ring on both E.coli and S.aureus. Filtration of E.coli solution (OD 0.31) showed satisfactory rejection data with ~100% inhibition growth after 24 hours incubation at $37^{\circ}C$. Resultant membranes also exhibit better tensile strength (compared to virgin PES) up to 71% may be due to the suggested interactions. The residual silver during fabrication was measured using ICP-MS and result showed that the residual silver content of PES-$AgNO_3$ membrane was only ~1% of the original silver added in the polymer solution. These studies have shown that PES-$AgNO_3$ UF membranes are potential in improving the filtration in water treatment.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.276-286
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• 2015

The effects of relaxation and backwashing on fouling in ultrafiltration were investigated using full-scale membrane bioreactors (MBRs) which operated at a constant flux of 30 LMH. This paper also estimated the feasibility of using intermittent aeration strategies for minimizing the hydraulic resistance to filtration in comparison with the continuous aeration for running MBRs. Multiple cycles of filtration (14.5 min each) and relaxation (0.5 min each) were repeated. Similarly, a backwash was conducted by replacing a relaxation after each filtration cycle for the comparative performance test. The attached cake thickness on the membrane rapidly increased, caused by subsequent no aeration leading to easier combining with gel layer and the formation of heterogeneous layer on the membrane surface. During periodic backwashing, it is expected that gel and thin cake layer might sufficiently be removed by heterogeneous layer. After periodic backwashing, subsequent cake layer formation during time of no aeration was rapid than frequent no aeration, acting as a prefilter and preventing further irreversible fouling. Based on the Pearson correlation analysis, overall period fouling (dTMP/min) and average of all cycles (dTMP/min) were strongly correlated with the on-off period of aeration for operating MBRs.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.135-138
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• 2001

Acrylic wastewater flux was discussed using modules of ultrafiltration hollow fiber and reverse osmosis spiral wound. The optimum backflushing times of membranes were decided and the degree of fouling was discussed with operating time. Permeate flux was decreased rapidly at 12hrs. Separation processes with ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis membranes were not suitable to remove COD and TDS. The improvement of pretreatment processes was needed.

• Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry
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• v.67
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• pp.199-209
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• 2018

Polyethersulfone (PES)/sulfonated $TiO_2$ ($STiO_2$) nanoparticles (NPs) UF blended membranes were fabricated with different loadings of $STiO_2$. The modified membranes exhibited significant improvement in surface roughness, porosity, and pore size when compared to the PES membrane. The $P-STiO_2$ 1 and $P-TiO_2$ 1 blended membranes exhibited higher water flux, approximately 102.4% and 62.6%, respectively, compared to PES. SPP-$STiO_2$ and $P-STiO_2$ showed lower Rir fouling resistance than the $P-TiO_2$ blended membrane. Overall, the $STiO_2$-blended membranes provide high hydrophilicity permeability, anti-fouling performance, and improved BSA rejection attributed to the hydrogen bonding force and more electrostatic repulsion properties of $STiO_2$.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.171-177
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• 2012

Effect of humic acid (HA), photo-oxidation and adsorption with periodic $N_2$ back-flushing was investigated in hybrid process of ceramic ultrafiltration and photocatalyst for drinking water treatment. It was compared and investigated with the previous result at water back-flushing in viewpoints of membrane fouling resistance ($R_f$), permeate flux (J), and total permeate volume ($V_T$). As decreasing HA, $R_f$ decreased dramatically and J increased, and finally $V_T$ was the highest at HA 2 mg/L. As HA concentration increased from 2 to 10 mg/L, the membrane fouling resistance after 180 mins' operation ($R_{f,180}$) improved 0.8 times more than that of water back-flushing. Therefore, HA concentration should affect on the membrane fouling at $N_2$ back-flushing than water back-flushing. Turbidity treatment efficiencies were almost constant independent of HA concentration, but HA treatment efficiency was the maximum at HA 2 mg/L. This means that adsorption and photo-oxidation of photocatalyst beads could removed HA at HA 2 mg/L, but it was not enough at 4 mg/L. Beyond HA 6 mg/L, UF could effectively treat HA by thick cake layer on membrane surface and severe inner membrane fouling.