• 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.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.632-638
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• 2005

Membrane fouling index such as Silt Density Index (SDI) and Modified Fouling Index (MFI) is an important parameter in design of the integrated RO/NF membrane processes for drinking water treatment. In this study, the effect of particle, membrane and feed water characteristics on membrane fouling index were investigated systematically. Higher fouling index values were observed when filtering suspensions with smaller particle size and higher feed particle concentration. Larger membrane resistance due to smaller pore size resulted in an increased membrane fouling index. The variations of feed water hardness and TDS concentrations did not show any impact on fouling index, suggesting that there were no significant colloidal interactions among particles and thus the porosity of particle cake layer accumulated on the membrane surface could be assumed to be 0.36 according to random packing density. Based on the experimental observations, fundamental membrane fouling index model was developed using Happel Cell. The effect of primary model parameters including particle size ($a_p$), particle concentration ($C_o$), membrane resistance ($R_m$), were accurately assessed without any fitting parameters, and the prediction of membrane fouling index such as MFI exhibited very good agreement with the experimental results.

• 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.22 no.1
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• pp.140-144
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• 2006

This study was performed to investigate the effect of organic characteristics and feed water solution chemistry on membrane fouling index such as Silt Density Index (SDI) and Modified Fouling Index (MFI). Specifically, Aldrich humic acids (AHA) and Suwannee river humic acids (SHA) were used in SDI/MFI experiments. Higher SDI values were observed with increasing organic concentration. AHA with larger molecular weight (MW) and SUVA (${\approx}UV_{254}/TOC$) resulted in higher SDI values, compared to SHA. The feed solution chemistry (i.e, pH, ionic strength, and hardness) also affects SDI values to some degree. In particular, SDI increased with increasing hardness ($Ca^{2+}$) concentration for AHA. Unlike SDI, the MFI developed on the basis of particle cake filtration theory, was not accurately assessed due to internal fouling by organics such as pore adsorption and subsequent pore blocking.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.489-495
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• 2011

Silt Density Index (SDI) has been used as a fouling index for reverse osmosis (RO) processes for decades. In order to decrease RO fouling, feed water should meet SDI standard, which was used to select a proper pretreatment system for RO processes. However, SDI is supposed to be sensitive only to particles larger than 0.45 ${\mu}m$ in terms of diameters while nanoparticles and dissolved organic matter can be potent foulants for RO processes. Our study started from the suspected performance of SDI as a RO fouling index. SDI data from pilot plants located world wide including South Korea were collected and analyzed. Suspended partcle concentration (i.e., turbidity and particle counts), and dissolved organic matter concentration (i.e., dissolved orgnaic carbon (DOC) concentration) data were also collected and compared to SDI values of same water samples. We found that SDI values were not only affected by suspended particle concentration but also by dissolved organic matter concentration. Therefore SDI can be used as a reasonable fouling index for RO feed water because the main foulants for RO processes are suspended particle and dissolved organic matter.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2016

Temperature correction trans-membrane pressure (TC-TMP) is frequently used as a fouling index in membrane water treatment plants. TC-TMP equation is derived based on an assumption that the total membrane resistance (i.e. the sum of the intrinsic membrane resistance and fouling resistance) is not affected by temperature. This work verified the validity of this assumption using microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF) membranes with and without fouling. The foulants used in the work were kaolin (inorganic) and humic acid (organic). The intrinsic resistances of MF and UF membranes remains at constant values regardless of temperature change. When the same amount of foulants were accumulated on the membrane, inorganic fouling resistance with kaolin was constant regardless of temperature change while organic fouling resistance with humic acid decreased at higher temperatures, which means that TC-TMP cannot be used as a fouling index when organic fouling occurs in a real field application. Since TC-TMP underestimates the amount of fouling at higher temperatures, more attention should be necessary in the operation of membrane water treatment plant in a hotter season like summer.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.1079-1085
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to find the operational characteristics of nitrifier-dominated membrane bioreactor (MBR), which has been extensively studied for organic removal, especially in terms of nitrite ($NO_2$-N) build-up and membrane fouling. Membrane fouling is one of the important factor which determines the economics of MBR system. The characteristics of membrane fouling was monitored in terms of the fouling indices such as sludge volume index (SVI), the concentration of total organic carbon (TOC) and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in a membrane permeate or sludge extract, the absorbance of supernatant at 260 nm. Most of index values except for protein concentration in EPS had a close relation with the increase of suction pressure and SVI value. Nitrifying MBR was superior to the conventional organic-oxidizing MBR in terms of membrane fouling since the fouling index value of nitrifying MBR was lower than that of BOD-oxidizing MBR.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.379-387
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• 2021

In general, trans-membrane pressure (TMP), flux, filtration resistance are used as indicators to evaluate the degree of fouling in MBR. However, they have limitations in determining the level of EPS generation, which is known as an important factor of fouling. Therefore, a new evaluation method is required to monitor the amount of EPS generation. In this study, the applicability of capillary suction time (CST), which is used to measure the dewaterability of sludge, was evaluated as an indirect fouling evaluation index. Statistical analysis was performed to evaluate the effect of EPS on CST, and to determine whether EPS has high similarity with representative fouling evaluation indicators and CST, and quantitatively compared them. As a result, the correlation coefficient between CST and bEPS was 0.7988, which was higher than the correlation coefficient between filtration resistance and bEPS. Since bEPS is a major factor inducing fouling by affecting the formation of the cake layer, it was evaluated that CST, which has a high correlation with bEPS, is suitable to represent EPS. In addition, it was evaluated that the correlation coefficient between filtration resistance and CST was high as 0.7187, which could be used as a fouling evaluation index.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.291-312
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• 2017

Seawater desalination is currently considered to be one of the primary technologies to resolve the global water scarcity problem. A basic understanding of membrane filtration phenomena is significant not only for further technological development but also for integrated design, optimal control, and long-term maintenance. In this vein, the present work reviews the major transport and filtration models, specifically related to reverse osmosis phenomena, provides theoretical insights based on statistical mechanics, and discusses model-based physical meanings as related to their practical implications.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.221-230
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• 2012

This study employed the modified fouling index (MFI) to determine the performance of a two-step recycling system - a membrane filtration integrated laminar flow water storage (LFWS) tank followed by an ion exchange process to reclaim ultrapure water (UPW) from the wastewater generated from semiconductor wafer backgrinding and sawing processes. The first step consisted of the utilization of either ultrafiltration (UF) or nanofiltration (NF) membranes to remove solids in the wastewater where the second step consisted of an ion exchanger to further purify the filtrate. The system was able to produce high purity water in a continuous operating mode. However, higher recycling cost could be incurred due to membrane fouling. The feed wastewater used for this study contained high concentration of fine particles with low organic and ionic contents, hence membrane fouling was mainly attributed to particulate deposition and cake formation. Based on the MFI results, a LFWS tank that was equipped with a turbulence reducer with a pair of auto-valves was developed and found effective in minimizing fouling by discharging concentrated wastewater prior to any membrane filtration. By comparing flux behaviors of the improved system with the conventional system, the former maintained a high flux than the latter at the end of the experiment.