• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.524-529
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• 2015

In this study transmembrane pressure (TMP) was measured with respect to operational time by applying the sinusoidal flux continuous operation (SFCO) for the hollow fiber membrane. The hollow fiber module which has $100cm^2$ of effective area and $0.45{\mu}m$ nominal pore size was submerged in the activated sludge solution of MLSS 5,000 mg/L. The critical permeate flux was measured as $26.6L/m^2{\cdot}hr$ by the method of continuous flux step change. TMPs of the filtration/relaxation (FR), FR with backwashing (FR/BW) and SFCO modes were measured. The SFCO mode was more effective than FR and FR/BW modes below the critical permeate flux such as 15, 20 and $25L/m^2{\cdot}hr$. However, the FR/BW was confirmed as more effectively fouling controlled mode than SFCO mode above the critical permeate flux.

• Journal of Appropriate Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.72-81
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• 2021

Gravity-driven membrane (GDM) filtration system based on the nanofiber membrane was investigated. This system can be operated with little energy demand due to a gravitational pressure-driven filtration and biological fouling control strategy. Moreover, the optimal module configuration based on the high permeance of nanofiber membrane can provide a significantly high water productivity. In order to evaluate its applicability potential, the pilot-scale (3000-5000 L/day) systems with nanofiber membranes were operated in developing countries (Kiribati and Tuvalu). Our results showed that the 14-92 L/(m²×h) of the permeate flux was determined indicating a stabilized water productivity. In addition, the permeate water indicated a high removal rate (more than 99.99%) of turbidity and bacteria. Consequently, the system can provide a stabilized water production with safe permeate water quality during long-term operation. These findings exemplify an effective approach to decentralized drinking water treatment for developing countries.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.277-285
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• 2001

We developed a compact, 10 kWe, purifier-integrated reformer which supplies hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles. Our proprietary technologies regarding hydrogen purification by palladium alloy membrane and catalytic combustion by noble metal coated wire-mesh catalyst were combined with the conventional methanol steam reforming technology, resulting in higher conversion, excellent quality of product hydrogen, and better thermal efficiency than any other systems. In this system, steam reforming, hydrogen purification, and catalytic combustion take place all in a single reactor so that the whole system is compact and easy to operate. The module produces $8.2Nm^3/hr$ of 99.999% or higher purity hydrogen with CO impurity less than 10 ppm, which is equivalent to 10 kWe when PEMFC has 45 % efficiency. Thermal efficiency of the module is 81 % and the power density of the module is 1.6 L/kWe. As the results of experiments, cold-start time has been measured about 20 minutes. Response time of hydrogen production to the change of the feed rate has been within 1 minutes.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.287-294
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• 2015

Photovoltaic (PV) modules are environmentally friendly energy-conversion devices to generate electricity via the photovoltaic effect of semiconductors on solar energy. One of key elements in PV modules is "Backsheet," a multi-layered film to protect the devices from a variety of chemicals including water vapor. A representative Backsheet is composed of polyvinyl fluoride (PVF) and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET). PVF is relatively expensive, while showing excellent resistance to chemical attacks. Thus, it is necessary to develop alternatives which can lower its high production cost and guarantee lifetime applicable to practical PV modules at the same time. In this study, PET films with certain levels of crystallinity were utilized instead of PVF. Since it is well known that PET is suffering from trans-esterification and hydrolysis under a wide pH range, it is needed to understand decomposition behavior of the PET films under PV operation conditions. To evaluate their chemical decomposition behavior within a short period of times, accelerated decomposition test protocol is developed. Moreover, electrochemical long-term performances of the PV module employing the PET-based Backsheet are investigated to prove the efficacy of the proposed concept.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.473-480
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• 2020

High-pressure membrane system like nanofiltration(NF) and reverse osmosis(RO) was investigated as a part of water treatment processes to produce high quality potable water with low organic matter concentration through membrane module tests and design simulation. River water and sand filtration permeate in Busan D water treatment plant were selected as feed water, and NE4040-90 and RE4040-Fen(Toray Chemical Korea) were used as NF and RO membranes, respectively. Total organic carbon(TOC) concentrations of NF and RO permeates were mostly below 0.5 mg/l and the average TOC removal rates of NF and RO membranes were 93.99% and 94.28%, respectively, which means NF used in this study is competitive with RO in terms of organic matter removal ability. Different from ions rejection tendency, the TOC removal rate increases at higher recovery rates, which is because the portion of higher molecular weight materials in the concentrated raw water with increasing recovery rate increases. Discharge of NF/RO concentrates to rivers may not be acceptable because the increased TDS concentration of the concentrates can harm the river eco-system. Thus, the idea of using NF/RO concentrate as the raw water for industrial water production was introduced. The design simulation results with feed water and membranes used in this work reveal that the raw water guideline can be satisfied if the recovery rate of NF/RO system is designed below 80%.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.123-135
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• 2014

The effects of pH, saturated oxygen, and back-flushing media were investigated in hybrid process of tubular ceramic microfiltration and $TiO_2$ photocatalyst-loaded PES (polyethersulfone) beads for advanced drinking water treatment, and compared results of water, nitrogen, or oxygen back-flushing in the viewpoints of membrane fouling resistance ($R_f$), permeate flux (J) and total treated water ($V_T$). $R_f$ decreased, and J and $V_T$ increased as decreasing pH. Turbidity treatment efficiencies were similar at water or nitrogen back-flushing independent of pH, but DOM (dissolved organic matter) treatment efficiency did not have a trend at water back-flushing. $R_f$ at NBF (no back-flushing) with SO (saturated oxygen) was the lower than that at NBF without SO. Also, the DOM treatment efficiency at NBF with SO was the lower than that at NBF without SO. It happened because OH radicals produced by reaction of SO and photocatalyst could dilute with water inside the module. The DOM treatment efficiency of gas back-flushing showed the larger than that of water back-flushing at back-flushig period 10 min. It proved that the adsorption or photo-oxidation of PES beads could be activated by the more effective bead-cleaning of gas back-flushing than water back-flushing.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.114-120
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to obtain practical information about membrane coupled $ A_2O$ system for muncipal wastewater treatment. A flat-plate microfiltration (MF) module with a pore size $0.25\;{\mu}m$ was submerged into the aeration basin and treated water was filtrated through the membrane by continuous suction with low pressure. The system was operated with synthetic wastewater to find operational parameters of internal recycle ratio and maximum MLSS showing best water quality and long-term stability. The internal recycle was defined as type 1 for aerobic to anoxic tank and type 2 for anoxic to anaerobic tank, respectively When the flux was maintained at $0.015\;m^3/m^2/hr$ (15 LMH) with 2Q type 1 internal recycle ratio, the optimal operational setting were 10 internal recycle ratio for type 2 and maximum MLSS of 11,000 mg/L among tested conditions. At this condition, removal efficiencies of BOD, CODcr, T-N and T-P showed $97.3\%,\;94.2\%,\;64.0\%,\;63.0\%$, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.261-269
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• 2015

In this study, we applied a membrane distillation process to investigate a feasibility of treating a wastewater with high concentration of organic matters including nitrogen and phosphorus. The laboratory scale experiment was performed by using a hydrophobic PVDF membrane with the pore size of $0.22{\mu}m$ and porosity of 75%. The installation was direct contact type where the temperature difference between a feed and permeate side was controlled to have a range from 20 to $60^{\circ}C$. We observed a flux variation and a concentration changes of COD, $PO{_4}^{3-}$-P, $NH_4{^+}$-N and conductivity of feed side as well as permeate side with various temperature differences (20 to $60^{\circ}C$), cross flow velocities (0.09 to 0.27 m/s) through the module, and pH (6.6 to 12.0) of the feed that has the initial concentration of COD about 1,000 mg/L, total nitrogen 390 mg/L, total phosphorus 10 mg/L, conductivity of $7,000{\mu}s/cm$. The results showed that the average flux was ranged from 4 to $40L/m^2/hr$ which was almost similar with the flux of NaCl and deionized water used as a feed solution. The lowest flux was obtained at the operating condition with the temperature difference of $20^{\circ}C$ and cross flow velocity of 0.09 m/s while the highest one was measured with $60^{\circ}C$ and 0.27 m/s. Above 99% of COD and $PO{_4}^{3-}$-P in the feed could be rejected regardless of an operating condition. However, the removal rate of ammonium nitrogen was varied from 64 to 99% depending on the pH of feed solution.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.68-76
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• 2017

Flat membrane with $0.4{\mu}m$ pore size was prepared with PVdF (polyvinylidene fluoride) nanofiber, which has the advantages such as excellent strength, chemical resistance, non-toxicity, and incombustibility. The spiral wound module was manufactured with the flat membrane and a woven paper. Hybrid water treatment process was composed of the PVdF nanofibers spiral wound microfiltration and granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorption column. Effect of GAC packing mass was investigated by comparing the case of recycling or discharging the treated water using the synthetic solution of kaolin and humic acid. After each filtration experiment, water back-washing was performed, and recovery rate and filtration resistances were calculated. Also, effect of GAC adsorption was compared by measuring turbidity and $UV_{254}$ absorbance. As a result, there was no effect of GAC packing mass on turbidity treatment rate; however, the treatment rate of $UV_{254}$ absorbance was 0.7~3.6% for recycling the treated water, and increased to 3.2-5.7% for discharging the treated water. In the case of recycling the treated water, reversible filtration resistance ($R_r$) and irreversible filtration resistance ($R_{ir}$) trended to decrease as increasing GAC packing mass; however, total fitration resistance ($R_t$) was almost constant, and recovery rate of water back-washing trended to increase a little.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.295-301
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• 2015

A theoretical analysis was carried out to examine the concentration behavior of methane from a biogas using a polysulfone membrane. After the governing equations were derived for the cocurrent flow mode in a membrane module, the coupled nonlinear differential equations were numerically solved with the Compaq Visual Fortran 6.6 software. At the typical operating condition of mole fraction of 0.7 in a feed stream, the mole fraction of methane in the retentate increased to 0.76 while the normalized retentate flow rate to the feed flow rate decreased from 1 to 0.79. When either the mole fraction of methane in a feed increased or the pressure of the feed stream increased, the methane mole fraction in the retentate increased. On the other hand, it was found that as either the membrane area decreased or the ratio of the permeate pressure to the feed pressure increased, the methane mole fraction in the retentate decreased. In case that the stage cut increased, the methane mole fraction in the retentate increased while the recovery of methane slightly decreased.