• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.775-780
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• 2005

This study was performed to investigate the effect of foulant characteristics on Membrane fouling index such as Silt Density Index (SDI) and Modified Fouling Index (MFI). A linear relationship was found relating the fouling index (both SDI and MFI) on particle concentration, but fouling index values were nonlinearly (exponentially) with increasing organic concentration. When organic matter was the primary cause of fouling, the MFI was not accurately predicted due to internal fouling such as pore adsorption. The fouling index was determined mainly by particle characteristics when both particle and organic coexisted in the feed water. This observation was attributed to lessening of organic pore adsorption by particle cake layer formed on the membrane surface. Bench-scale actual fouling experiments demonstrated that permeate flux declines much faster with feed water containing particles than organic matters although fouling potential predicted by SDI values were identical, indicating that the accurate prediction of fouling potential requires the development of fouling index reflecting different foulant characteristics.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.161-172
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• 2015

Forward osmosis (FO) is an emerging membrane technology with potential applications in desalination and wastewater reclamation. The osmotic pressure gradient across the FO membrane is used to generate water flux. In this study, flux performance and foulant deposition on the FO membrane were systematically investigated with a co-current cross-flow membrane system. Sodium alginate (SA), bovine serum albumin (BSA) and tannic acid (TA) were used as model foulants. Organics adsorbed on the membrane were peeled off via oscillation and characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). When an initial flux of $8.42L/m^2h$ was applied, both flux reduction and foulant deposition were slight for the feed solution containing BSA and TA. In comparison, flux reduction and foulant deposition were much more severe for the feed solution containing SA, as a distinct SA cake-layer was formed on the membrane surface and played a crucial role in membrane fouling. In addition, as the initial SA concentration increased in FS, the thickness of the cake-layer increased remarkably, and the membrane fouling became more severe.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.717-725
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• 2002

A bench-scale submerged-type membrane filtration system (SMFS) was constructed to study a feasibility of membrane filtration for solid-liquid separation in water and wastewater treatment processes. In the case of applying the SMFS to a biological wastewater treatment process, so-called membrane bioreactor, aeration underneath membrane modules is usually employed in order to provide oxygen demand for microbial growth as well as to control membrane fouling. A study was investigated the effects of operation parameters by aeration intensity, feed concentration, foulant type and airlift pore size on critical flux. Critical flux tends to increase with aeration rate. Optimal aeration flow rate was found to be 10 L/min/module. Feed concentration and foulant type has a significant effect on membrane fouling and filtration performance. But downward position and pore size of airlift has no a significant effects on membrane fouling and filtration performance.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.55-66
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• 2002

fouling phenomena of ion exchange membranes were reviewed for improved design and operation of electodialysis. The membrane fouling index for electrodialysis (EDMFI) was defined for the quantitative analysis of fouling potential as an analogy to the pressure-driven membrane process. fouling phenomena were compared in the electrodialysis experiments with inorganic foulant (silica sol) and organic foulants (humate and bovine serum albumin (BSA)), and their fouling potentials were analyzed using the fouling index. The comparison showed that the EDMFI could be used as a quantitative measure of the fouling tendency in electrodialysis processes. As a novel fouling mitigation method, square wave power was reported to be effective in electrodialysis with organic foulants. The square wave powers having the pulsed electric field enabled to reduce the membrane fouling significantly at an optimal frequency.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.159-168
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• 2002

A lab-scale Reverse Osmosis(RO) membrane reactor was installed to investigate the membrane permeability, characteristics of membrane fouling at each conditions, and performance of elimination at different trans-membrane pressure(TMP) in the liquid fertilizer accumulated system. Experimental setup was divided to three different TMP conditions. As a result of experiment, permeability of RO membrane was proportional to the increase of TMP and temperature. After experiment was completed, two types chemical cleaning(remove the organic foulant and inorganic foulant) was done, and recover rate of permeability was each 99.8, 99.7 and 99.7%, respectively. From this experimental data, membrane fouling could be determined that the most of it was recoverable in this system, and major reason of fouling was concentration polarization. Elimination rate of solute substance in the liquid fertilizer indicated very stable(above 99%), except ammonia nitrogen, and the most stable elimination rate was investigated at the highest TMP condition (Run 3).

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.44-53
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• 2011

Membrane bio-reactor (MBR) has several advantages over the conventional activated sludge process, including a high biomass, low sludge production, and better permeate quality. Therefore, the MBR have gained popularity for municipal and industrial wastewater treatment. However the MBR usually were used for sewage and low streng th wastewater treatment because of membrane fouling problem and limitation of oxygen transfer into biomass. In this study, the hybrid process combining MBR and pure oxygen was tested for high strength organic wastewater treatment in the COD loading range from 2 to $10kgCOD/m^3{\cdot}day$. The hybrid process, membrane coupled pure oxygen high compact reactor (MPHCR), had been operated for one year and operation parameters, the effect of COD loading, MLSS concentration and the location of membrane module were studied for membrane fouling characteristic. Also membrane resistance test and the component of foulant was analyzed to investigate what is specific foulant in the MBR.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.2205-2213
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• 2000

To investigate removal efficiency of dissolved matter by NF and RO, a pilot plant was operated for six months using groundwater treated by UF membrane. After the pilot plant operation, we performed autopsy test to identify characteristics of foulant attached on the membrane surface applying the used NF and RO in the pilot plant test. In autopsy test, we measured permeate flux and recovery rate of flux by chemical cleaning in each membrane. We also analyzed chemical cleaning disposal to examine component of foulant. Permeate flux of NF and RO1 showed rapid decline after 100 days of operation. Especially, reduction of specific flux in RO1 was more serious than in NF. Specific flux of RO2 with a low recovery rate resulted in gradual flux decline. Removal efficiencies of dissolved inorganic matters as a conductivity were 76.3%, 88.2% and 95.3% respectively for NF, RO1 and RO2, and RO2 presented the highest removal efficiency. And those of dissolved organic matters as TOC were about 80% for both NF and RO. The specific flux of membranes declined gradually from the feed water inlet to outlet of the membrane module and it showed that membrane fouling increased along the feed flow direction. Namely, concentration of pollutants became higher and volume of feed water was less as the feed flow approached to the outlet. It seemed that major foul ants were Ca consolidated into inorganic material and Si consolidated into organic material on the membrane surface. Fe was a great contribution to irreversible fouling. The SEM results indicated that the organic matter was attached to the first layer, closer to the membrane, and then inorganic matter with tetragonal shape layered over them. We could not observe biofouling because microorganism, which was cause of biofouling, was almost pretreated in UF membrane.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.559-569
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• 2007

The purposes of this study were to find the main foulant of membrane and the optimal chemical cleaning method for MF(microfiltration) drinking water treatment system using D dam water as water source. The MF pilot plant which can treat maximum $500m^3/d$ consisted of 3 racks and was operated for 10 months under various operation conditions. After 10 months operation, $1^{st}$ and $2^{nd}$ rack of membrane pilot plant system were cleaned chemically and the degree of the restoration of the fouled membrane in terms of the pure water flux was detemnined. Inorganic compounds which contained in chemical cleaning waste was analyzed by Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP). One membrane module for 3rd rack was disjointed and membrane fouling materials, especially inorganic compounds were investigated by Electron Probe Microanlysis (EPMA) to elucidate the reason of TMP increase. And also, the various chemical reagents (1N HCl or $H_2SO_4$, oxalic acid as acid and 0.3% NaOCl as alkali) were tested by combination of acid and alkali to determine the optimal chemical cleaning method for the MF system using micro-modules manufactured using the disjointed module. It was verified that the inside and outside of membrane module was colorized with black. As a result of the quantitative and semi-qualitative analysis of membrane foulant by ICP, most of inorganic foulant was manganese which is hard to remove by inorganic acid such as HCI. Especially, it was observed by EPMA that Mn was attached more seriously in inside surface of membrane than in outside surface of that. It was supposed that Mn fouling in inside surface of membrane might be caused by the oxidation of soluble manganese (Mn(II)) to insoluble manganese ($MnO_2$) by chlorine containing in backwashing water. The optimal cleaning method for the removal of manganese fouling was consecutive cleaning with the mixture of 1N HCl and 1% of oxalic acid, 0.3% NaOCl, and 1N HCl showing 91% of the restoration of the fouled membrane.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.171-176
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• 2011

Membrane fouling is formed due to pore blocking and cake formation by suspended material or contaminant in the membrane boundary layer. Membrane fouling is main obstacle for the wider application of industrial water treatment. The objective of this paper is to study the direct monitoring technique for the measuring the membrane fouling in real time. We investigated the extracted image of R, G, and B by visible light irradiation of 360 nm wavelength to measure the membrane fouling in real time by transparent foulant. The intensity of B of 400~499 nm wavelength range was stronger than that of R and G. The fluorescence image extraction analysis appeared to be a very attractive technique for monitoring the membrane fouling in real time.

• 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.