• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.251-262
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• 2015

In this work the preparation and characterization of a membrane containing a uniform mesoporous Titanium oxide top layer on a porous stainless steel substrate has been studied. The 316 L stainless steel substrate was prepared by powder metallurgy technique and modified by soaking-rolling and fast drying method. The mesoporous titania membrane was fabricated via the sol-gel method. Morphological studies were performed on both supported and unsupported membranes using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and field emission scanning microscope (FESEM). The membranes were also characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and $N_2$-adsorption / desorption measurement (BET analyses). It was revealed that a defect-free anatase membrane with a thickness of $1.6{\mu}m$ and 4.3 nm average pore size can be produced. In order to evaluate the performance of the supported membrane, single-gas permeation experiments were carried out at room temperature with nitrogen gas. The permeability coefficient of the fabricated membrane was $4{\times}10^{-8}\;lit\;s^{-1}\;Pa^{-1}\;cm^{-1}$.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.189-203
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• 2015

Membrane biofouling impedes wide application of membrane bioreactor (MBR) for wastewater treatment. Recently, quorum sensing (QS) mechanisms are accounted for one of major mechanisms in biofouling of MBRs. In this study, vanillin was applied to investigate reduction of biofouling in MBRs. MBR sludge was analyzed to contain QS signal molecules by cross-feeding biosensor assay and HPLC. In addition, the inhibitory activity of vanillin against bacterial quorum sensing was verified using an indicator strain CV026. The vanillin doses greater than 125 mg/L to 100 mL of MBR sludge showed 25% reduction of biofilm formed on the membrane surfaces. Two MBRs, i.e., a typical MBR as a control and an MBR with vanillin, were operated. The TMP increases of the control MBR were more rapid compared to those of the MBR with the vanillin dose of 250 mg/L. The treatment efficiencies of the two MBRs on organic removal and MLSS were maintained relatively constant. Extracellular polymeric substance concentrations measured at the end of the MBR operation were 173 mg/g biocake for the control MBR and 119 mg/g biocake for the MBR with vanillin. Vanillin shows great potential as an anti-biofouling agent for MBRs without any interference on microbial activity for wastewater treatment.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.173-187
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• 2015

The goal of present work is the preparation of a novel positively charged nanofiltration (NF) membrane and its development for the cation removal of aqueous solutions. This NF membrane was fabricated by the surface modification of polysulfone (PSf) ultrafiltration support. The active top-layer was formed by interfacial cross-linking polymerization of poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) with p-xylylene dichloride (XDC) and then quaternized with methyl iodide to form a perpetually positively charged layer. In order to improve the efficiency of nanofiltration membrane, the concentration of PEI, XDC and methyl iodide solutions, PEI coating and cross-linking time have been optimized. As a result, a high water flux and high $CaCl_2$ rejection (1,000 ppm) was obtained for the composite membrane with values of $18.29L/m^2.h$ and 93.62% at 4 bar and $25^{\circ}C$, respectively. The rejections of NF membrane for different salt solutions followed the order of $Na_2SO_4$ < $MgSO_4$ < NaCl < $CaCl_2$. Molecular weight of cut off (MWCO) was calculated via retaining of PEG solutions with different molecular weights that finally, it revealed the Stokes and hydrodynamic radius of 1.457 and 2.507 nm on the membrane selective layer, respectively. The most efficient positively charged nanofiltration membrane exhibited a $Ni^{2+}$ rejection of 96.26% for industrial wastewater from Shamse Hadaf Co. (Kashan, Iran).

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-23
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• 2012

The coupling of anaerobic biological process and membrane separation could provide excellent suspended solids removal and better biomass retention for wastewater treatment. This coupling improves the biological treatment process while allowing for the recovery of energy through biogas. This review gives a basic description of the anaerobic wastewater treatment process, summarizes the state of the art of anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs), and describes the current research trends and needs for the development of AnMBRs. The research interest on AnMBR has grown over the conventional anaerobic processes such as upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB). Studies on AnMBRs have developed different reactor configurations to enhance performances. The AnMBR performances have achieved comparable status to other high rate anaerobic reactors. AnMBR is highly suitable for application with thermophilic anaerobic process to enhance performances. Studies indicate that the applications of AnMBR are not only limited to the high strength industrial wastewater treatment, but also for the municipal wastewater treatment. In recent years, there is a significant progress in the membrane fouling studies, which is a major concern in AnMBR application.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.35-49
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• 2012

In membrane processes, various agents are used to enhance, protect, and recover membrane performance. Applying these agents in membrane modification could potentially be considered as a simple method to improve membrane performance without additional process. Citric acid (CI) and sodium bisulfite (SB) are two chemicals that are widely used in membrane feed water pretreatment and cleaning processes. In this work, preadsorptions of CI and SB were developed as simple methods for polysulfone ultrafiltration membrane modification. It was found that hydrogen bonding and Van Der Waals attraction could be responsible for the adsorptions of CI and SB onto membranes, respectively. After modification with CI or SB, the membrane surfaces became more hydrophilic. Membrane permeability improved when modified by SB while decreased a little when modified by CI. The modified membranes had an increase in PEG and BSA rejections and better antifouling properties with higher flux recovery ratios during filtration of a complex pharmaceutical wastewater. Moreover, membrane chlorine tolerance was elevated after modification with either agent, as shown by the mechanical property measurements.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.243-252
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• 2012

Tri-n-butyl phosphate (TBP) was used as carrier for the transport of Golden yellow and Cibacron LSG dyes through a hexane bulk liquid membrane. The transport efficiency of dyes by TBP was investigated under various experimental conditions such as pH of the feed phase (dyes solution), concentration of the receiving phase (NaOH solution), concentration of TBP in membrane, rate of stirring, effect of transport time, type of solvent, dye concentration in feed phase, effect of temperature.. The maximum transport dyes occurs at ratio of 1:1 TBP-hexane At pH 3.0 0.1 (feed phase) the transport dyes decreased. At high stirring speed (300 rpm) the dyes transport from the feed phase to the strip phase was completed within 60 minutes at $27^{\circ}C$. Under optimum conditions: Feed phase 100 mg/L dyes solution at pH 1.0 0.1, receiving phase 0.1 mol/L NaOH solution, membrane phase 1:1 TBP-hexane , Stirring speed 300 rpm and temperature $27^{\circ}C$, the proposed liquid membrane was applied to recover the textile effluent.

• 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.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.105-119
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• 2011

This study presents the tests of an Immersed Membrane BioReactor (IMBR) equipped with a draft tube and focuses on the influence of hydrodynamic conditions on membrane fouling in a pilot-scale using a hollow fiber membrane module of ZW-10 under ambient conditions. In this system, the cross-flow velocities across the membrane surface were induced by a cylindrical draft-tube. The relationship between cross-flow velocity and aeration strength and the influence of the cross-flow on fouling rate (under various hydrodynamic conditions) were investigated using Multi-Dimension Scaling (MDS) analysis. MDS technique is especially suitable for samples with many variables and has relatively few observations, as the data about Membrane Bio-Reactor (MBR) often is. Observations and variables are analyzed simultaneously. According to the results, a specialized form of MDS, CoPlot enables presentation of the results in a two dimensional space and when plotting variables ratio (output/input) rather than original data the efficient units can be visualized clearly. The results indicate that: (i) aeration plays an important role in IMBR performance; (ii) implementing the MDS approach with reference to the variables ratio is consequently useful to characterize performance changes for data classification.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.91-103
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• 2011

The flux behavior in the separation of equimolar bovine serum albumin (BSA) and bovine hemoglobin (HB) in aqueous solutions by cross-flow ultrafiltration (UF) was investigated, in which polyacylonitrile membrane with a molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of 100 kDa was used. BSA and HB have comparable molar mass (67,000 vs. 68,000) but different isoelectric points (4.7 vs. 7.1). The effects of process variables including solution pH (6.5, 7.1, and 7.5), total protein concentration (1.48 and 7.40 ${\mu}M$), transmembrane pressure (69, 207, and 345 kPa), and solution ionic strength (with or without 0.01 M NaCl) on the separation were examined. It was shown that the ionic strength had a negligible effect on separation performance under the conditions studied. Although BSA and HB are not rigid bodies, the flux decline in the present cross-flow UF did not result from the mechanism of cake filtration with compression. In this regard, the specific cake resistance when pseudo steady-state was reached was evaluated and discussed.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.63-76
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• 2012

Mother liquid discharged from a salt-manufacturing plant was electrodialyzed at 25 and $40^{\circ}C$ in a continuous process integrated with $SO_4{^{2-}}$ ion low-permeable anion-exchange membranes to remove $Na_2SO_4$ and recover NaCl in the mother liquid. Performance of electrodialysis was evaluated by measuring ion concentration in a concentrated solution, permselectivity coefficient of $SO_4{^{2-}}$ ions against $Cl^-$ ions, current efficiency, cell voltage, energy consumption to obtain one ton of NaCl and membrane pair characteristics. The permselectivity coefficient of $SO_4{^{2-}}$ ions against $Cl^-$ ions was low enough particularly at $40^{\circ}C$ and $SO_4{^{2-}}$ transport across anion-exchange membranes was prevented successfully. Applying the overall mass transport equation, $Cl^-$ ion and $SO_4{^{2-}}$ ion transport across anion-exchange membranes is evaluated. $SO_4{^{2-}}$ ion transport number is decreased due to the decrease of electro-migration of $SO_4{^{2-}}$ ions across the anion-exchange membranes. $SO_4{^{2-}}$ ion concentration in desalting cells becomes higher than that in concentration cells and $SO_4{^{2-}}$ ion diffusion is accelerated across the anion-exchange membranes from desalting cells toward concentrating cells.