• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.57-71
• /
• 2014

In this study, a theoretical model for the transport phenomena in an Air Gap Membrane Distillation used for desalination was developed. The model is based on the conservation equations for the mass, momentum, energy and species within the feed water solution as well as on the mass and energy balances on the membrane sides. The rarefaction impacts are taken into consideration showing their effects on process parameters particularly permeate flow and thermal efficiency. The theoretical model was validated with available data and was found in good agreement especially when the slip condition is introduced. The rarefaction impact was found considerable inducing an increase in the permeate flux and the thermal efficiency.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.171-176
• /
• 2011

Organic matters that comprise a tiny part of seawater generally occur over 50% of membrane fouling in Reverse Osmosis Process. This study evaluates Foundation efficiency of reverse osmosis membranes under brackish and seawater conditions and resistance of organic fouling. Moreover, analyzing the membrane surface through roughness, contact angle and zeta potential results in roughness and contact angle are proportional to flux decline rate (FDR), yet FDR has high value when zeta potential is low level. Furthermore, with various membrane fouling of different raw water conditions, the flux tends to improve when pH value is high and raw water which is complex with organic and cation pollutes membrane faster than organic separated raw water condition.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.410-419
• /
• 2017

Since the beginning of the water shortage by disasters such as global warming, environmental pollution, and drought, development of original technology and studies have been undergone to increase availability of water resources. Among them the water treatment separation membrane technology is an environmentally friendly process that does not use chemicals and shows better water quality improvement effect than conventional physicochemical and biological processes. The water treatment membrane can be applied to various fields such as waste water treatment, water purification treatment, seawater desalination, ion exchange process, ultrapure water production, organic solvent separation and water treatment technology, and it tends to expand the range of application. In the core technology of water treatment membrane, researches are being actively carried out to develop a separation membrane of better performance by controlling the pore size to adjust the separation performance. In this review, we summarized the frequency of announcement by country and organization through the technological competitiveness evaluation of patents and papers of the water separation membrane. Also, we evaluated the results from membrane research for waste water treatment, water purification treatment, seawater desalination, ion exchange process and present the future direction of research.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.279-292
• /
• 2017

This study was aimed at ultrafiltration (UF) as a pretreatment before reverse osmosis (RO) within the scheme of hybrid reverse osmosis-multistage flush (RO-MSF) desalination. Seawater at elevated temperature (after MSF heat-exchangers) was used as a feed in this process. The pretreatment system was represented as a set of functionally-linked technological segments such as: UF filtration, backwashing, chemical- enhanced backwashing, cleaning, waste disposal, etc. The process represents the sequences of operating cycles. The cycle, in turn, consists of the following unit operations: filtration, backwashing and chemical-enhanced backwashing (CEB). Quantitative assessment was based on the following indicators: normalized permeability, transmembrane pressure, specific energy and water consumption, specific waste generation. UF pre-treatment is accompanied by the following waste streams: $W1=1.19{\times}10$ power of $-2m^3$ (disposed NaOCl with 0.0044% wt.)/$m^3$ (filtrate); $W2=5.95{\times}10$ power of $-3m^3$ (disposed $H_2SO_4$ with 0.052% wt.)/$m^3$(filtrate); $W3=7.26{\times}10$ power of $-2m^3$ (disposed sea water)/$m^3$ (filtrate). Specific energy consumption is $1.11{\times}10$ power of $-1kWh/m^3$ (filtrate). The indicators evaluated over the cycles with conventional (non-chemical) backwashing were compared with the cycles accompanied by CEB. A positive impact of CEB on performance indicators was demonstrated namely: normalized UF resistance remains unchanged within the regime accompanied by CEB, whereas the lack of CEB results in 30% of its growth. Those quantitative indicators can be incorporated into the target function for solving different optimization problems. They can be used in the software for optimisation of operating regimes or in the synthesis of optimal flow- diagram. The cycle characteristics, process parameters and water quality data are attached.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.200-205
• /
• 2013

Pretreatment process is the critical step of RO (Reverse Osmosis) membrane desalination plant in order to prevent RO membrane fouling. The pretreatment as a key component of RO process must be designed to produce a constant and high quality RO feedwater which has low silt density index (SDI). This experiment was conducted to assess parameters affecting SDI value, such as pH, seawater turbidity, temperature, and coagulant dose. The experimental results indicated that the source seawater turbidity did cause little effects on SDI values of filtered water. The 0.45 um hydrophilic membrane was more appropriate than the hydrophobic membrane for measuring SDI. The SDI value was increased with decreasing pH under the condition of below pH 7.0. In addition, the water temperature significantly affected the SDI values, showing higher SDI value with lower water temperature.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.177-184
• /
• 2011

Membrane fouling is an unavoidable phenomenon in operation of seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) and major obstacle for economic and efficient operation. When fouling occurs on the membrane surface, the permeate flux is decreased, on the contrary, the trans-membrane pressure (TMP) is increased, therefore operation and maintaining costs and potential damage of membranes are able to the pivotal risks of the process. Chemical cleaning process is essential to prevent interruptions for effective RO membrane filtration process. This study focused on proper chemical cleaning condition for polyamide RO membranes of 4 companies. Several chemical agents were applied for chemical cleaning under numbers of operating conditions. Additionally, a monitoring tool of FEEM as autopsy analysis method is adapted for the prediction of organic bio-fouling.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.437-446
• /
• 2019

Reverse osmosis seawater desalination facilities can extend the cleaning cycle and replacement time of the reverse osmosis membrane by pretreatment process. Selection of pretreatment process depends on water quality. It was attempted in this study to select approriate pretreatment process for the Masan bay, which was high in particles and organic content. For this purpose, performances of pretreatment processes such as filter adsorber (FA), pore controllable fiber (PCF), and ultrafiltration (UF) were compared based on the silt density index (SDI). The SDI value of the filtrate should be less than 3. The study results showed that UF can produce the filtrate quality satisfying the requirement. However, the transmembrane pressure (TMP) of UF increased quickly, reaching 0.6 bar within 4 days. In order to secure stable operation, FA and PCF were combined with UF. The study results showed that combination of PCF and UF was able to extend the filtration duration (more than 2 months) until to reach TMP of 0.6 bar.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2004.05a
• /
• pp.19-24
• /
• 2004

ED method is employed to effectively remove the organic acid salts in actual PDO fermentation broth. The lower electrical potential is selected to avoid the serious membrane fouling so as to ensure a stable and durative desalination process. Under the selected operation conditions, about 90% of organic acids salts are removed from PDO fermentation broth successfully by ED process. To reduce the loss of PDO product due to the diffusion, the operation time should be considered carefully. And based on mass balance equation and irreversible thermodynamics approach, a mathematical model is developed to describe the desalination process of an aqueous solution containing neutral solute by ED method. While the influence of concentration polarization is reflected by decreasing the conductivity of membrane, the model is verified well to describe the ED processes under varied operation conditions. Through the model, ED process of actual PDO fermentation broth is simulated to get a suitable scope of initial concentration in concentrated compartment.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.51 no.2
• /
• pp.240-244
• /
• 2013

Although forward osmosis desalination technology has drawn substantial attention as a next-generation desalination method, the energy efficiency of its draw solution treatment process should be improved for its commercialization. When ammonium bicarbonate is used as the draw solute, the system consists of forward-osmosis membrane modules, draw solution separation and recovery processes. Mixed gases of ammonia and carbon dioxide generated during the draws solution separation, need to be recovered to re-concentrate ammonium bicarbonate solution, for continuous operation as well as for the economic feasibility. The diluted ammonium bicarbonate solution has been proposed as the absorbent for the draw solution regeneration. In this study, experiments are conducted to investigate performance and features of the absorption corresponding to absorbent concentration. It is concluded that ammonium bicarbonate solution can be used to recover the generated ammonia and carbon dioxide. The results will be applied to design and operation of pilot-scale forward-osmosis desalination system.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.2 no.3
• /
• pp.147-158
• /
• 2011

Membrane distillation process was used for desalination of hot (333 K) geothermal water, which was applied in the plant producing heating water. The investigated water contained 120 g salts/$dm^3$, mainly NaCl. The mineral composition was studied using an ion chromatography method. The obtained rejection of solutes was closed to 100%, but the small amounts of $NH_3$ also diffused through the membrane together with water vapour. However, the composition of obtained distillate allowed to use it as a makeup water in the heating water system. The geothermal water under study was concentrated from 120 to 286 g NaCl/$dm^3$. This increase in the solution concentration caused the permeate flux decline by a 10-20%. The geothermal water contained sulphates, which was subjected to two-fold concentration to achieve the concentration 2.4-2.6 g $SO{_4}{^{2-}}/dm^3$ and the sulphates then crystallized in the form of calcium sulphate. As a results, an intensive membranes scaling and the permeate flux decline was observed. The XRD analysis indicated that beside the gypsum also the NaCl crystallites were deposited on the membrane surfaces. The fresh geothermal water dissolved the mixed $CaSO_4$ and NaCl deposit from the membrane surface. This property can be utilized for self-cleaning of MD modules. Using a batch feeding of MD installation, the concentration of geothermal water was carried out over 800 h, without significant performance losses.