• Membrane Journal
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2006

Nanofiber is a broad phrase generally referring to a fiber with diameter less than 1 micron. Various polymers have been successfully electrospun into nanofibers in recent years. These nanofibers, due to their high surface area and porosity, have a great potential for use as filter medium, adsorption layers in protective clothing, etc. Nanofiber filters will enable new levels of filtration performance in the field of air filtration. In particular, nanofibers provide marked increases in filtration efficiency at relatively small pressure drop in permeability. Therefore, nanofiber filters could be substituted for conventional filter market due to the easy application of process and the possibility of coating to micron-sized non-woven sheets. This review is discussed on the trend of researche and development related to nanofiber filter including future marketability.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.193-206
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• 2010

Organic fouling and biofouling pose a significant challenge to the membrane filtration process. Photocatalysis-membrane hybrid system is a novel idea for reducing these membranes fouling however, when $TiO_2 photocatalyst nanoparticles are used in suspension, catalyst recovery is not only imposes an extra step on the process but also significantly contributes to increased membrane resistance and reduced permeate flux. In this study, $TiO_2$ photocatalyst has been immobilized by coating on the microfiltration (MF) membrane surface to minimize organic and microbial fouling. Nano-sized $TiO_2$ was first synthesized by a sol-gel method. The synthesized $TiO_2$ was coated on a Poly Vinyl Difluoride (PVDF) membrane (MF) surface using spray coating and dip coating techniques to obtain hybrid functional composite membrane. The characteristics of the synthesized photocatalyst and a functional composite membrane were studied using numerous instruments in terms of physical, chemical and electrical properties. In comparison to the clean PVDF membrane, the $TiO_2$ coated MF membrane was found more effective in removing methylene blue (20%) and E-coli (99%).

• Membrane Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.163-170
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• 2011

Membrane fouling control in water treatment may be the main obstacle for wider implementation and lower cost. A novel fluorescent spectroscope sensor device for membrane fouling integrity monitoring has been developed and evaluated in this study. PSf membranes for water treatment has been fabricated with three types of organic fluorescent materials, OB, FP, KCB. The fluorescent signal from membrane surface was analyzed throughout the filtration process. It was found that the fluorescent signal due to the membrane fouling decreased and the developed device is reliable for membrane fouling monitoring.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.14 no.5 s.77
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• pp.473-476
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• 2005

The demand of on-chip total analyzing system with MEMS (micro electro mechanical system) bio/chemical sensor is rapidly increasing. In on-chip total analyzing system, to detect the bio/chemical products with submicron feature size, a filtration system with nano-filter is required. One of the conventional methods to fabricate nano-filter is to use direct patterning or RIE (reactive ion etching). However, those procedures are very costly and are not suitable fur mass production. In this study, we suggested new fabrication method for a nano-filter based on replication process, which is simple and low cost process. After the Si master was fabricated by laser interference lithography and reactive ion etching process, the polymeric mold was replicated by UV-imprint process. Metallic nano-filter was fabricated after removing the polymeric part of metal deposited polymeric mold. Finally, our fabrication method was applied to metallic nano-filter with $1{\mu}m$ pitch size and $0.4{\mu}m$ hole size for bacteria sensor application.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.380-386
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• 2005

Optimal conditions of ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) were investigated for separation and concentration of isoflavones and oligosaccharides from Sunmul. Levels of COD, BOD, and suspended solids (SS) in UF and NF permeates were also determined to evaluate effectiveness of these processes for reducing water pollution. Optimal UF operation conditions to achieve minimal fouling and maximal flux were $33-34^{\circ}C$ operating temperature and 2.3-2.4 bar trans-membrane pressure. Recovery yields of isoflavones and oligosaccharides in UF retentate were 11.49-28.16% and 12.77-27.57%, respectively. Increase in volumetric concentration factor (VCF) resulted in more functional compounds of isoflavones and oligosaccharides passing through UF membrane. Total isoflavone and oligosaccharide yields decreased by 3% as VCF increased from 6.0 to 8.0 and from 8.0 to 10.0, while decreased significantly by 10% as VCF decreased from 4.0 to 6.0. Optimal NF operating conditions were 192-195 psig operating pressure at $30-33^{\circ}C$. Total yields of isoflavones and oligosaccharides significantly decreased at VCF 8.0, whereas did not decrease up to VCF 6.0 during NF operation. Therefore, VCF 6.0 was recommended for economical process. COD and BOD decreased by more than 98% after NF process, and SS were not detected after UF process. These results indicated sequential filtration process was useful for separation of isoflavones and oligosaccharides from Sunmul and for reducing water contaminants.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.335-342
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• 2018

Micelle-Enhanced Ultrafiltration (MEUF) is a membrane separation processes that improving ultrafiltration process with the formation of micelles of the surface active agents. Surface active agents are widely used to improve membrane processes due to the ability to trap organic compounds and metals in the treatment of industrial waste water. In this study, surface active agents are used to improve micelle-enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF) to reduce chemical oxygen demand (COD), total dissolved solid (TDS), turbidity and clogging the membrane in dairy wastewater treatment. Three important operational factors (anionic surface active agent concentration, pressure and pH) and these interactions were investigated by using response surface methodology (RSM) and Box-Behnken design. Results show that due to the concentration polarization layer and increase the number of Micelles; the anionic surface active agent concentration has a negative effect on the flux and has a positive effect on the elimination of contamination indices. pH, and the pressure have the greatest effect on flux. On the other hand, it could be stated that these percentages of separation are in the percentages range of Nano-filtration (NF). While MEUF process has higher flux than NF process. The results have been achieved at lower pressure while NF process needs high pressure, thus making MEUF is the replacement for the NF process.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.56-60
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• 2018

There have been a lot of study to improve the performance of membrane filters as the removal of particulate matter has been of great interest due to the negative effects. Among the membrane fabrication techniques, the electrospinning technique is the most promising because it can produce uniform fibers ranging from nano to micrometer size. The electrospun membranes will greatly improve the filtration performance due to the high ratio of surface area to volume and the high porosity. In the present study, polystyrene (PS) and cellulose acetate (CA) polymers were used to produce the membranes with carbon nanotube (CNT), showing the filtration performances were improved with the optimal amounts of CNT.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.333-344
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• 2020

Advances in industrial development and waste management over several decades have reduced many of the impacts that previously affected ecosystems, however, there are still processes which discharge hazardous materials into environments. Among industries that produce industrial wastewaters, textile manufacturing processes play a noticeable role. This study was conducted to test a novel continuous combined commercial membrane treatment using polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), ultrafiltration (UF), and polyamide (PA) nanofiltration (NF) membranes for textile wastewater treatment. The synthetic textile wastewater used in this study contained sodium silicate, wax, and five various reactive dyes. The results indicate that the removal efficiency for physical particles (wax and resin) was 95% through the UF membrane under optimum conditions. Applying UF and NF hybrid treatment resulted in total effective removal of dye from all synthetic samples. The efficiency of sodium silicate removal was measured to be between 2.5 to 4.5% and 13 to 16% for UF and NF, respectively. The chemical oxygen demand in all samples was reduced by more than 85% after treatment by NF.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.259-264
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• 2019

Cost effective clay adsorptive microfiltration membranes were synthesized to remove Cr (III) from high polluted water. Raw and calcined bentonite were mixed in order to decrease the shrinkage and also increase the porosity; then, 20 wt% of carbonate was added and the samples, named B (without carbonate) and B-Ca20 (with 20 wt% calcium carbonate) were uniaxially pressed and after sufficient drying, fired at $1100^{\circ}C$ for 3 hours. Then, physical and mechanical properties of the samples, their phase analyses and microstructure and also their ability for Cr(III) removal from high polluted water (including 1000 ppm Cr (III) ions) were studied. Results showed that the addition of calcium carbonate lead the porosity to increase to 33.5% while contrary to organic pore formers like starch, due to the formation of wollastonite, the mechanical strength not only didn't collapse but also improved to 36.77 MPa. Besides, sample B-Ca20, due to the presence of wollastonite and anorthite, could remove 99.97% of Cr (III) ions. Hence, a very economic and cost effective combination of membrane filtration and adsorption technology was achieved for water treatment which made microfiltration membranes act even better than nanofiltration ones without using any adsorptive nano particles.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.313-320
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• 2022

Theoretical calculation results are presented for the enhancement of the water mass flow rate through the hydrophobic micro/nano pores in the membrane respectively on the micrometer and nanometer scales. The water-pore wall interfacial slippage is considered. When the pore diameter is critically low (less than 1.82nm), the water flow in the nanopore is non-continuum and described by the nanoscale flow equation; Otherwise, the water flow is essentially multiscale consisting of both the adsorbed boundary layer flow and the intermediate continuum water flow, and it is described by the multiscale flow equation. For no wall slippage, the calculated water flow rate through the pore is very close to the classical hydrodynamic theory calculation if the pore diameter (d) is larger than 1.0nm, however it is considerably smaller than the conventional calculation if d is less than 1.0nm because of the non-continuum effect of the water film. When the driving power loss on the pore is larger than the critical value, the wall slippage occurs, and it results in the different scales of the enhancement of the water flow rate through the pore which are strongly dependent on both the pore diameter and the driving power loss on the pore. Both the pressure drop and the critical power loss on the pore for starting the wall slippage are also strongly dependent on the pore diameter.