• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.15-26
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• 2015

The compact structure and high-quality effluent of membrane bioreactors make them well-suited for decentralized greywater reclamation. However, the occurrence of membrane fouling continues to limit their effectiveness. To address this concern, a unique membrane module configuration was developed for use in a decentralized greywater treatment system. The module featured local aeration directly below a series of inclined membrane bundles, giving the overall module a twisted appearance compared to a module with vertically orientated fibres. The intent of this design was to increase the frequency and intensity of collisions between rising air bubbles and the membrane surface. Material related to the construction of custom-fit modules is rarely communicated. Therefore, detailed design and assembly procedures were provided in this paper. The twisted module was compared to two commercially available modules with diverse specifications in order to assess the relative performance and marketability of the twisted module with respect to existing products. Contaminant removal efficiencies were determined in terms of biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, ammonia, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and turbidity for each module. Membrane fouling was monitored in terms of permeate flux, transmembrane pressure, and membrane resistance. Following 168 h of operation, the twisted module configuration demonstrated competitive performance, indicating good potential for further development and commercialization.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.501-512
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• 2015

A laboratory-scale submerged membrane bioreactor (MBR) was continuously operated for 100 d at an infinite sludge retention time (SRT) with the aim of identifying possible relation between the filterability of mixed liquor and sludge properties, such as extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), soluble microbial products (SMP), viscosity of mixed liquor, zeta potential of flocs and particle size distributions (PSD). Research results confirmed that MBR can operate with a complete sludge retention ensuring good treatment performances for COD and $NH_3-N$. However, the long term operation (about 40 d) of MBR with no sludge discharge had a negative influence on sludge filterability, and an increase in membrane fouling rates with the time was observed. There as a strong correlation between the sludge filterability and the fouling rate. Among the different sludge properties parameters, the concentration SMP and EPS had a more closely correlation with the sludge filterability. The concentrations of SMP, especially SMP with MW above 10 kDa, had a strong direct correlation to the filterability of mixed sludge. The protein fractions in EPS were biodegradable and available for microorganism metabolism after about 60 days, and the carbohydrates in EPS had a significantly negative effect on sludge filterability in MBR at an infinite SRT.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.489-499
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• 2015

In this work, treatment of real hypersaline refinery wastewater by hollow fiber membrane bioreactor coupled with reverse osmosis unit was studied. The ability of HF-MBR and RO developed in this work, was evaluated through examination of the effluent properties under various operating conditions including hydraulic retention time and flux. Arak refinery wastewater was employed as influent of the bioreactor which consists of an immersed ultrafiltation membrane. The HF-MBR/RO was run for 6 months. Average elimination performance of chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, total suspended solids, volatile suspended solids, total dissolved soild and turbidity were obtained 82%, 89%, 98%, 99%, 99% and 98% respectively. Highly removal performance of oily contaminant, TDS and the complete retention of suspends solids implies good potential of the HF-MBR/RO system for wastewater refinement.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.451-476
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• 2015

Membrane distillation (MD), which can utilize low-grade thermal energy, has been extensively studied for desalination. By incorporating solar thermal energy, the solar membrane distillation desalination system (SMDDS) is a potential technology for resolving the energy and water resource problems. Small-scale SMDDS (s-SMDDS) is an attractive and viable option for the production of fresh water for small communities in remote arid areas. The minimum-cost design and operation of s-SMDDS are determined by a systematic method, which involves a pseudo steady state approach for equipment sizing and the dynamic optimization using overall system mathematical models. The s-SMDDS employing three MD configurations, including the air gap (AGMD), direct contact (DCMD) and vacuum (VMD) types, are optimized. The membrane area of each system is $11.5m^2$. The AGMD system operated for 500 kg/day water production rate gives the lowest unit cost of $5.92/m^3$. The performance ratio and recovery ratio are 0.85 and 4.07%, respectively. For the commercial membrane employed in this study, the increase of membrane mass transfer coefficient up to two times is beneficial for cost reduction and the reduction of membrane heat transfer coefficient only affects the cost of the DCMD system.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.27-42
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• 2015

In this study, poly (phenylene oxide) (PPO) and poysulfone (PSf) were sulfonated and aminated respectively. Both sulfonated poly (phenylene oxide) (SPPO) and aminated polysulfone (APSf) were characterized via the measurement of FT-IR, swelling degree, ion exchange capacity (IEC), and ion conductivity. Then the surfaces of these membranes were modified by surface fluorination using 2000 ppm $F_2$ gas against $N_2$ gas for 1 h at room temperature. The surface fluorinated SPPO and APSf membranes were characterized again to determine any differences between the pristine and fluorinated membranes. In total, 3 types of bi-polar membranes were prepared by varying the IEC of the APSf and having a fixed value for the IEC of the SPPO. The hypochlorite concentration generated by using the surface fluorinated membranes was dependent on the IEC of the APSf and ranged from 683 to 826 ppm, while there was a considerable improvement in the durability of the surface fluorinated membranes as they remained intact even after operating for 4 h.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.439-449
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• 2015

Carbolic Acid which is called phenol is one of the important starting and/or intermediate materials in various industrial processes. However, its excessive release into environment poses a threat to living organisms, as it is a highly carcinogens and hazardous pollutant even at the very low concentration. Thus removal of phenol from polluted environments is very crucial for sustainable remediation process. We developed a low cost adsorption method for separating phenol from a model aqueous solution. The phenol adsorption was studied using two adsorbents i.e., Amber lite XAD-16 and Amber lite XAD-7 HP with a constant amount of resin 0.1 g at varying aqueous phenol concentrations ($50-200mgL^{-1}$) at room temperature. We compared the efficacy of two phenol adsorbents for removing higher phenol concentrations from the media. We investigated equilibrium and kinetics studies of phenol adsorption employing Freundlich, Temkin and Langmuir isotherms. Amberlite XAD-16 performed better than Amberlite XAD-7 HP in terms of phenol removal efficiency that amounted to 95.52%. Pseudo second order model was highly fitted for both of the adsorption systems. The coefficient of determination ($R^2$) with Langmuir isotherm was found to be 0.98 for Amberlite XAD-7 HP. However, Freundlich isotherm showed $R^2$ value of 0.95 for Amberlite XAD-16, indicating that both isotherms could be described for the isotherms on XAD-7 HP and Amberlite XAD-16, respectively.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.193-207
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• 2016

Boron is one of the most problematic inorganic pollutants and is difficult to remove in water. Strict standards have been imposed for boron content in water because of their high toxicity at high concentrations. Technologies using membrane processes such as reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) have increasingly been employed in many industrial sectors. In this work, removal of boron from model water solutions was investigated using polyamide reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes. RO-AG, RO-SG, NF-90 and NF-HL membranes were used to reduce the boron from model water at different operational conditions. To understand the boron separation properties a characterization of the four membranes was performed by determining the pure water permeability, surface charge and molecular weight cut-off. Thereafter, the effect of feed pressure, concentration, ionic strength, nature of ions in solution and pH on the rejection of boron were studied. The rejection of boron can reach up to 90% for the three membranes AG, SG and NF-90 at pH = 11. The Spiegler-Kedem model was applied to experimental results to determine the reflection coefficient of the membrane ${\sigma}$ and the solute permeability $P_s$.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.39-53
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• 2016

In this study, polysufone (PSf) was used as a base polymer to synthesize sulfonated polysulfone (SPSf) and aminated polysulfone (APSf) as cation and anion exchange polymers, respectively. Then the ion exchange polymers were coated onto the surface of commercial carbon electrodes. To compare the capacitive deionization (CDI) and membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) processes, the pristine carbon electrodes and ionic polymer coated electrodes were tested under various operating conditions such as feed flow rate, adsorption time at fixed desorption time, and feed concentration, etc., in terms of effluent concentration and salt removal efficiency. The MCDI was confirmed to be superior to the CDI process. The performance of MCDI was 2-3 times higher than that of CDI. In particular, the reverse desorption potential was a lot better than zero potential. Typically, the salt removal efficiency 100% for 100 mg/L NaCl was obtained for MCDI at feed flow rate of 15 ml/min and adsorption/desorption time of 3 min/1 min and applied voltages 1.0 V for adsorption and -0.3 V for desorption process, and for 500 mg/L, the salt removal efficiency 91% was observed.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.53-75
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• 2015

This paper provides an overview of the role of membranes in bioelectrochemical systems (BESs). Bioelectrochemical systems harvest clean energy from waste organic sources by employing indigenous exoelectrogenic bacteria. This energy is extracted in the form of bioelectricity or valuable biofuels such as ethanol, methane, hydrogen, and hydrogen peroxide. Various types of membranes were applied in these systems, the most common membrane being the cation exchange membrane. In this paper, we discuss three major bioelectrochemical technology research areas namely microbial fuel cells (MFCs), microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) and microbial desalination cells (MDCs). The operation principles of these BESs, role of membranes in these systems and various factors that affect their performance and economics are discussed in detail. Among the three technologies, the MFCs may be functional with or without membranes as separators while the MECs and MDCs require membrane separators. The preliminary economic analysis shows that the capital and operational costs for BESs will significantly decrease in the future due mainly to differences in membrane costs. Currently, MECs appear to be cost-competitive and energy-yielding technology followed by MFCs. Future research endeavors should focus on maximizing the process benefits while simultaneously minimizing the membrane costs related to fouling, maintenance and replacement.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.43-52
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• 2015

A small-scale electro-dialysis system was constructed for domestic use. It is composed of six compartments in which five special polystyrene ionic membranes are housed. A series of experiments on the transport of sodium and chloride ions through polystyrene membranes was performed and the effects of electric current and voltage on the pH of water were investigated. This electrodialyser could reduce the NaCl content to an acceptable level (5307 mg/L) when water containing 9945 mg/L of sodium chloride is fed to the electrodialyser. The reduction was by the action of direct current 60 mA/100 mA when a 15 V / 20 V potential is maintained across the membrane. The results showed that the pH of the treated water attained a value in the range of 7-8, with the chloride concentration of 5307 mg/L when the voltage was in the range of 20 volts. This was achieved when two of the small-scale electro-dialysers were placed in series and the solutions from the respective compartments were mixed. This is considered useful because this complies to the requirement of drinking water standard both in terms of chloride and pH. Therefore, this type electrodialyserhas the potential for domestic uses in isolated houses where potable water supply is not available.