• Membrane Journal
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.120-126
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• 2010

In this study, the effect of surface deposition of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles at polyethersulfone (PES) microfiltraiton (MF) membrane on humic acid fouling was investigated. The effect was observed as a function of crystal structures of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles and solution chemistries including pH and divalent cation such as calcium. Our results showed clearly that $TiO_2$-deposited membrane could mitigate membrane fouling significantly. However, this effect was observed to be dependent upon crystal structures of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles and solution chemistries. In the absence of calcium, fouling mitigation was less pronounced for both anatase and hybrid $TiO_2$-deposited membrane than for rutile $TiO_2$-deposited membrane while opposite trend was observed after addition of calcium. In the presence of calcium, the adsorption of humic acid to $TiO_2$-deposited membrane can be reduced by electrostatic repulsions between humic acid and $TiO_2$ surface. Addition of calcium provided further beneficial effect on fouling mitigation particularly at higher pH for the anatase $TiO_2$ deposited membrane, implying that both increased hydrophilicity due to $TiO_2$ nanoparticles and negative surface charge of the membrane should affect fouling mitigation. However, rutile $TiO_2$ having more inertness generally than the anatase $TiO_2$ showed relatively robust effect on the fouling mitigation regardless of solution properties.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.46-54
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• 2011

In this study, combined effect of airflow rate, $TiO_2$ concentration, solution pH and $Ca^{+2}$ addition on HA (humic acid) fouling in submerged, photocatalytic hollow-fiber microfiltraiton was investigated systematically. Results showed that UV irradiation alone without $TiO_2$ nanoparticles could reduce HA fouling by 40% higher than the fouling obtained without UV irradiation. Compared to the HA fouling without UV irradiation and $TiO_2$ nanoparticles, the HA fouling reduction was about 25% higher only after the addition of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles. Both adsorptive and hydrophilic properties of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles for the HA can be involved in mitigating membrane fouling. It was also found that the aeration itself had lowest effect on fouling mitigation while the HA fouling was affected significantly by solution pH. Transient behavior of zeta potential at different solution pHs suggested that electrostatic interactions between HA and $TiO_2$ nanoparticles should improve photocatalytic efficiency on HA fouling. $TiO_2$ concentration was observed to be more important factor than airflow rate to reduce HA fouling, implying that surface reactivity on $TiO_2$ naoparticles should be important fouling mitigation mechanisms in submerged, photocatalyic microfiltraiton. This was further supported by investigating the effect of $Ca^{+2}$ addition on fouling mitigation. At higher pH (= 10), addition of $Ca^{+2}$ can play an important role in bridging between HA and $TiO_2$ nanoparticles and increasing surface reactivity on nanoparticles, thereby reducing membrane fouling.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.31-36
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• 2008

This work was performed to evaluate the effect of membrane material and structure on fouling in a submerged membrane bioreactor(MBR). Three types of microfiltration membranes with the same pore size of 0.1 $\mu$m but different materials, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polycarbonate(PCTE) and polyester(PETE), were used. While PETE membrane exhibited the most rapid flux decline throughout the operation, PCTE and PTFE had a similar tendency with regard to permeability. Difference in permeability between PETE and the other membranes gradually decreased with time, which was probably due to chemical cleaning. The higher TOC rejection of PETE membrane could be attributable to its faster fouling, resulting from a larger amount of foulants to get attached to the membrane in a shorter time. DOC fractionation using a DAX-8 resin showed that the composition of each fraction between the supernatant and permeates did not change significantly with operation time, indicating that membrane hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity was not a dominant factor affecting to MBR fouling in this study. Compared to other membranes, the fouling of PETE membrane was more influenced by pore clogging (irreversible fouling), which would probably contribute to a higher organic rejection of the PETE membrane.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.205-211
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• 2016

Performance of pyrophyllite-based ceramic membranes newly developed were investigated. Membrane fouling caused by microbial suspensions taken from a full-scaled MBR system at domestic wastewater treatment plant was observed at different airflow rate and distance between each membrane. For the pyrophyllite support, pore size was about $1.0{\mu}m$, but surface coating with $Al_2O_3$ solution decreased the pore size with the reduction of the pure water permeability. With the MLSS taken from the full-scaled MBR system (6 g/L), the fouling rate was decreased by increasing airflow rate under $20L/m^2{\cdot}hr$ of setpoint flux. However, the effectiveness of the airflow rate on the fouling control depends strongly upon the gap between each membrane. At fixed airflow rate, the fouling rate was decreased by increasing the gap between each pyrophyllite membrane. Nevertheless, further increasing the membrane distance from 3.5 to 5.4 cm resulted in higher fouling rate. Similar result was observed with the $Al_2O_3$ coated-pyrophyllite membrane. Nevertheless, the fouling rate was lower with the coated membrane than that observed with the uncoated pyrophyllite support. Regardless of surface coating, the suspended solids were removed almost completely and the surface coating on the pyrophyllite support improved organic rejection with PEG solution (MW : 8000 kDa) tested.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.360-366
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• 2011

The effect of cross-flow velocity and transmembrane pressure (TMP) on membrane fouling was observed from pilot-scale operation of thermophilic anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) treating food waste leachate. It was found that fouling rate was reduced significantly as cross-flow velocity increased at constant TMP mode of operation while this effectiveness was more pronounced at lower TMP. Higher TMP resulted in less permeable fouling layer possibly due to compressibility of foulant material on membrane surface. Particle sizes of membrane concentrate ranged from 10 to $100{\mu}m$, implying that shear-induced diffusion enhance back transport of these particle sizes away from the membrane effectively. From the continuous operation of AnMBR, it was confirmed that shear rate played an important role in the reduction of membrane fouling. Membrane autopsy works at the end of operation of AnMBR showed clearly that both organic and inorganic fouling were significant on membrane surface. Surface shear by cross-flow velocity was expected to be less effective to remove irreversible fouling which can be mainly caused by the adsorption of organic colloidal materials into membrane pores.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.77-83
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• 2017

Transient behavior of fouling resistance was observed with a laboratory-scaled, submerged microfiltration membrane system treating high-turbidity source water consisting of inorganic silica particles and humic acid. Fouling mitigation efficiency with inorganic silica particles caused by aeration was reduced significantly as both humic acid and calcium ion existed together. Scanning electron microscopic observations showed that humic acid was adsorbed onto the surface of inorganic silica particles in the presence of calcium. Turbidity removal was achieved almost completely by submerged MF system regardless of feed compositions. However, the $UV_{254}$ removal of humic acid was improved in the presence of both calcium and inorganic silica particles. Additionally, increasing air-flow rate tended to increase $UV_{254}$ removal efficiency higher than 80%. This may be caused by back-transport of humic acid enhanced by inorganic silica particles providing surface for organic adsorption in the presence of calcium.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.133-138
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• 2015

Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) process is one of membrane processes for harvesting renewable energy by using salinity difference between feed and draw solutions. Power is generated by permeation flux multiplied by hydraulic pressure in draw side. Membrane fouling phenomena in PRO process is presumed to be less sever, but it is inevitable. Membrane fouling in PRO process decreases water permeation through membrane, resulting in significant power production decline. This study intended to investigate the effect of hydraulic pressure in PRO process on alginate induced organic fouling as high and low hydraulic pressures (6.5 bar and 12 bar) were applied for 24 h under the same initial water flux. In addition, organic fouling in draw side from the presence of foulant (sodium alginate) in draw solution was examined. As major results, hydraulic pressure was found to be not a significant factor affecting in PRO organic fouling as long as the same initial water flux is maintained, inidicating that operating PRO process with high hydraulic pressure for efficient energy harvesting will not cause severe organic fouling. In addition, flux decline was negligible from the presence of organic foulant in draw side.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.64-78
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• 2011

Surface of hydrophobic polyethylene membrane was modified to become hydrophilic by ion beam irradiation. Submerged membrane filtration reactors contained pristine membrane or surface-modified membrane and the influent to reactors was pickled radish wastewater. The objectives of this study was to investigate the variation of flux and pressure and the characteristics of pollutant removal such as organics, suspended solids and nutrients with time. The result of experiments using intermittent pristine membrane showed the occurrence of severe fouling by increasing permeate pressure rapidly in case of pickled radish wastewater but in synthetic wastewater, this phenomenon was not occurred. In experiments of variation flux after chemical cleaning and water cleaning in pristine membrane, chemical cleaning must be necessary for renewals of pollutant membrane. Performance of intermittent operation is higher than that of continuous operation. Reaching fouling time in the case of surface-modified membrane is 6 times as long as pristine membrane. According this reason, replacement expense of surface-modified membrane could be 1/6 of that of pristine membrane. Effluent from this process was relatively good water quality and performance in the removal efficiency of SS, nitrogen and phosphorus was particularly higher.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.196-204
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• 2018

The anaerobic fluidized bed bioreactor (AFBR) treating synthetic wastewater to simulate domestic sewage was operated under GAC fluidization to provide high surface area for biofilm formation. Although the AFBR achieves excellent COD removal efficiency due to biological activities, concerns are still made with nutrient such as nitrogen remaining in the effluent produced by AFBR. In this study, forward osmosis membrane was applied to treat the effluent produced by AFBR to investigate removal efficiency of total nitrogen (TN) with respect to the draw solution (DS) such as NaCl and glucose. Permeability of FO membrane increased with increasing DS concentration. About 55% of TN removal efficiency was observed with the FO membrane using 1 M of NaCl of draw solution, but almost complete TN removal efficiency was achieved with 1 M of glucose of draw solution. During 24 h of filtration, there was no permeate flux decline with the FO membrane regardless of draw solution applied.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.13-22
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• 2015

The combined impact of Dissolved Organic Matter (DOM) fouling and inorganic ($CaSO_4,Ca_3(PO_4)_2$) scaling on the retention of TNT (2, 4, 6-Trinitrotoluene), RDX (Hexahydro-1, 3, 5-trinitro-1, 3, 5-triazine) and HMX (1, 3, 5, 7-Tetranitro-1, 3, 5, 7-tetrazocane) explosive contaminants by nano-filtration membrane were studied, since organic fouling and salt scaling are the major limitations for membrane filtration. Results reported here indicate that DOM fouling layer with a humic acid does not necessarily lead to an immediate loss of permeate flux but can result in a severe impact on the flux loss when both humic acid and inorganic scaltants were presented simultaneously. The $Ca_3(PO_4)_2$ mixed with humic acid showd most sever flux loss (42%) compared to that of only humic acid presence (8%). It could be a result that the scaling formation of the NF membrane was dominated by cake layer formation of DOM and it was along with pore blocking by the formation of crystals inside the porous active matrix of the NF membrane. In addition, these results indicated that the membrane selectivity of the explosives retention trended correlated with respect to increasing explosives size (listed by MW) based on greater steric interactions and followed the order (MW, g $mol^{-1}$; removal, %): HMX (296.15; 83%) ${\gg}$ RDX (222.12; 49%) ≋ TNT (227.13; 32%). Because the scaling and fouling layer could lead to a additional cake-enhanced concentration polarisation effect, the retention of explosives with the presence of humic acid in the feed solution and inorganic scaling formation on top of an organic fouling layer do not differ substantially retention from that of pure DI feed and NaCl solution.