• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.241-244
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• 2004

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.273-280
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• 2016

Pressure assisted forward osmosis (PAFO) is recently introduced because of its improved process efficiency to overcome drawbacks of forward osmosis (FO) such as low water flux and reverse solute diffusion. However, it is known that membrane fouling becomes deteriorated by additional hydraulic pressure applied in PAFO compared to FO. This study was performed to investigate possibility of intermittent pressure-assisted forward osmosis (I-PAFO) operation for fouling mitigation using colloidal silica particles as model foulants. FO, PAFO were operated as well to compare with. Two different solution pH conditions (pH 3, 10) were applied to see the effect of electrostatic interactions between the membrane and silica particles on fouling tendency. In the results, higher water flux was observed during pressurization and pressure relaxation periods in I-PAFO than water flux of PAFO, and FO on both pH conditions. Water flux decreased less in I-PAFO than PAFO after fouling. It resulted in higher water flux recovery in I-PAFO than PAFO after physical cleaning.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.343-350
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• 2016

Membrane distillation (MD) is a novel separation process that have drawn attention as an affordable alternative to conventional desalination processes. However, membrane fouling and pore wetting are issues to be addressed prior to widespread application of MD. In this study, the influence of ultrasonic irradiation on fouling and wetting of MD membranes was investigated for better understanding of the MD process. Experiments were carried out using a direct contact membrane distillation apparatus Colloidal silica was used as a model foulants in a synthetic seawater (35,000 mg/L NaCl solution). A vibrator was directed attached to membrane module to generate ultrasonic waves from 25 kHz (the highest energy) to 75 kHz (the lowest energy). Flux and TDS for the distillate water were continuously monitored. Results suggested that ultrasonic irradiation is effective to retard flux decline due to fouling only in the early stage of the MD operation. Moreover, wetting occurred by a long-term application of ultrasonic rradiation at 75 kHz. These results suggest that the conditions for ultrasonic irradiation should be carefully optimized to maximize fouling control and minimize pore wetting.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.39-49
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• 2022

Seawater desalination is doubtlessly a viable option to supply fresh drinking water. Nevertheless, RO (reverse osmosis) desalination plants in specific areas may be intermittently operated to match the imbalance between water demand and supply. Although a handful of works have been done on other membrane systems, few studies have attempted to mitigate fouling in intermittent RO systems. Accordingly, the objectives of this paper were to examine the effect of the intermittent operation on RO fouling; and to compare four intermittent operation modes including feed solution recirculation, membrane storage in the feed solution, deionized water (DI) recirculation, and membrane storage in DI water. Results showed that intermittent operation reduced RO fouling under several conditions. However, the extents of fouling mitigation were different depending on the feed conditions, foulant types, and membrane lay-up methods. When the feed solution was recirculated during the lay-up, the restoration of the flux was less significant than that by the feed solution feed-up. The use of deionized water during the lay-up was effective to restore flux, especially when the feed solution contains scale-forming salts (CaSO₄) and/or colloidal silica.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.34-46
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• 2009

Effect of backflushing on the membrane fouling for polyethylene capillary membranes was examined by measuring the flux of $Al_2O_3$ colloidal suspensions through the cross flow microfiltration. In the comparison of with and without the application of backflushing, the hydraulic resistance to permeate flow of the suspension was less with backfluslng, but the Increasing rate in permeate resistance was higher. Regardless of backflushing, the cake filtration was dominant at the initial period of filtration with backflushing, being followed by the pore blocking. And at steady state, the fouling mechanism is almost governed by the cake filtration model. On the contrary, the pore blocking preceded the cake filtration in the initial stage of the original membrane before backflushing. And irrespective of backflushing, the ratio of cake filtration to total fouling increased, compared with that fur before backflushing. For the membrane with $0.24{\mu}m$ pore size, the permeate resistance was higher than that of $0.34{\mu}m$ pore size membrane. but the ratio of cake filtration was smaller than that of large pore membrane. In comparing the ratio of each fouling component to the total fouling for the case with backflushing pore blocking was 7.8% and cake filtration was 92.2%. for the case without backflushing, total fouling was composed of 9.6% pore blocking and 90.4% cake filtration.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.127-132
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• 2005

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2006

In this study, five commercially available fouling resistant low-pressure RO membranes were investigated for the treatment of seasonally brackish surface water with high organic content (${\approx}24mg/L$). The membranes investigated are LFC-1 (Hydranautics), X20 (Trisep), BW30FR1 (FilmTec), SG (Osmonics), and BE-FR (Saehan). The results of surface characterization revealed that each of these membranes has one or two unique surface characteristics to minimize the adherence of the fouling materials to the membrane. Specifically, the LFC1 membrane features a neutral or low negative surface to minimize electrostatic interactions with charged foulants. The X20, on the other hand, shows a highly negatively charged surface, and thus, is expected to perform well with feed waters containing negatively charged organics and colloids. The BW30FR1 exhibits a relatively neutral and hydrophilic surface, which could be beneficial for lessening organic and/or biofouling. The SG membrane has a smooth surface that makes it quite resistant to fouling, particularly for colloidal deposition. Lastly, BE-FR membrane demonstrated a medium surface charge and a slightly higher hydrophobicity. In the pilot study, all of the four membranes experienced a gradual increase in MTC (water mass transfer coefficient or specific flux) over time, indicating no fouling occurred during the pilot study. The deterioration of permeate water quality such as TDS was also observed over time, suggesting that the integrity of the membranes was compromised by the monochloramine used for biofouling control.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.418-426
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• 2019

Current available commercial membranes are not robust and are therefore destroyed if left to dry out or handled roughly. Woven fibre microfiltration (WFMF) membranes have advantages over its competitors with respect to durability, thus, favourable for the developing economies and operation during rough conditions. Evaluation of the effects of aeration and brushing as a flux enhancement strategies for WFMF membrane was the purpose of this study. The WFMF membrane was found to be susceptible to pore plugging by colloidal material and adsorption/attachment by microbiological contaminants. This led to a 50% loss in flux. Aeration as a single flux enhancement strategy proved insufficient to maintain high flux successfully. Therefore combined flux enhancement strategies yielded the best results.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.413-420
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• 2019

Pretreatment system of desalination process using seawater reverse osmosis(SWRO) membrane is the most critical step in order to prevent membrane fouling. One of the methods is coagulation-UF membrane process. Coagulation-UF membrane systems have been shown to be very efficient in removing turbidity and non-soluble and colloidal organics contained in the source water for SWRO pretreatment. Ferric salt coagulants are commonly applied in coagulation-UF process for pretreatment of SWRO process. But aluminum salts have not been applied in coagulation-UF pretreatment of SWRO process due to the SWRO membrane fouling by residual aluminum. This study was carried out to see the effect of residual matal salt on SWRO membrane followed by coagulation-UF pretreatment process. Experimental results showed that increased residual aluminum salts by coagulation-UF pretreatment process by using alum lead to the decreased SWRO membrane salt rejection and flux. As the salt rejection and flux of SWRO membrane decreased, the concentration of silica and residual aluminum decreased. However, when adjusting coagulation pH for coagulation-UF pretreatment process, the residual aluminum salt concentration was decreased and SWRO membrane flux was increased.

• 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.