• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.249-257
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• 2014

This experiment was carried out for a laboratory scale activated sludge bioreactor equipped with submerged flat sheet membrane using the synthetic wastewater. The membrane system for the activated sludge solution of MLSS 5,000 mg/L was operated with constant permeate flux by continuously permeating and periodically 10 minute-permeating/2 minute-resting modes, respectively. The transmembrane pressure was measured as the permeate flux increased from 10 to $25L/m^2{\cdot}hr$ under the constant air flowrate 0.25 L/min. Also, the complete blocking, standard blocking, intermediate blocking, incompressible cake and linear compressible cake fouling models were retrofitted for the experimental data in order to determine the state of the membrane fouling. Because the transmembrane pressure fluctuated as a pulse shape for every period of 10 minute-permeating/2-minute resting mode, the membrane fouling models were separately applied for the maximum and minimum connecting lines. The linear compressible cake fouling model for the activated sludge cakes was the best fitted with the experimental results from the above five models.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.155-160
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• 2004

Permeation experiments of a commercial nanofiltration membrane (nominated as ESNA 1) were carried out with aqueous solutions of various single salts, that is, five chlorides (NH$_4$Cl, NaCl, KCl, MgCl$_2$ and $CaCl_2$), three nitrates $(NaNo_3,\;Mg(No_3)_2\;and\;Ca(NO_3)_2)\;and\;three\;sulfates\;((NH_4)_2SO_4,\;Na_2SO_4\;and\;MgSO_4)$. The experimental results showed that (1) the permeate volume flux of the ESNA 1 membrane increased and decreased with the growth of the applied pressure and the feed concentration of salts, respectively. The real rejection of ESNA 1 membrane to most single salts increased with the growth of the permeate volume flux. (2) The reflection coefficients of ESNA 1 membrane to chlorides, nitrates and sulfates are 0.97, 0.96 and 0.99, respectively. The solute permeability of most salts except for magnesium and calcium salts increased with the growth of feed concentration. (3) The sequence of the rejections of ESNA 1 membrane to anions is $R({SO_4}^{2-})>R(CI)>R(NO_3)$ at the same feed concentration. While the sequence of the rejections to cations is cataloged into two cases: $R(Na^+)>R(K^+)>R(Mg^{2+})>R(Ca^{2+})$ at the concentration of 10 mol/$m^3$ and $R(Mg^{2+})>R(Ca^{2+})>R(Na^+)>R(K^+)$ at the concentration of 100 mol/$m^3$. The separation capability of a NF membrane is usually affected by the electrostatic effect and the steric-hindrance effect. In this case, the electrostatic effect is the major factor at low concentration and the steric-hindrance effect is the major factor at high concentration. Both the specific sorption and the hydration also reasonably influenced the separation performance of NF membrane to salts.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.45-53
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• 2013

Membrane filtration processes are increasingly popular for drinking water treatment that requires high quality of water. But pre-treatment system (Coagulation/Flocculation/Sedimentation) requires increased footprint and installation cost. In addition, 5~10% of the concentrate are formed. In this study, the pressurized PVDF membrane (ECONITY Co., Ltd.) system was tested with surface water (Han River, South Korea) without pre-treatment. As a result, permeate flux was operated between 1 m/d and 2.4 m/d (at $25^{\circ}C$) without chemical cleaning for one year and membrane permeate turbidity was maintained stably under 0.05 NTU regardless of raw water turbidity. And we studied application of concetrate treatment of pressurized PVDF membrane by submerged PE membrane (ECONITY Co., Ltd.). As a result, we increased recovery of total treatment process to 99.5%.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.311-321
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• 2017

Hydrophilic and high modulus PPTA molecules were incorporated into PVDF matrix via the in situ polymerization of PPD and TPC in PVDF solution. PPTA/PVDF/NWF blend membrane was prepared through the immersion precipitation phase inversion method and nonwoven coating technique. The membrane integrated technology including PPTA/PVDF/NWF blend membrane and reverse osmosis (RO) membrane was employed to treat the polyester/viscose spunlace nonwoven process wastewater. During the consecutive running of six months, the effects of membrane integrated technology on the COD, ammonia nitrogen, suspended substance and pH value of water were studied. The results showed that the removal rate of COD, ammonia nitrogen and suspended substance filtered by PPTA/PVDF blend membrane was kept above 90%. The pH value of the permeate water was about 7.1 and the relative water flux of blend membrane remained above 90%. After the deep treatment of RO membrane, the permeate water quality can meet the water circulation requirement of spunlace process.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 2004

This study was conducted to investigate the characteristics of ultrafiltration and spray drying process for crude protein bound polysaccharide(CPBP) isolated from Agaricus blasei Murill. In ultrafiltration process, the permeate flux increased with the increase of operating pressure and temperature. The permeate flux declined continuously while the fouling materials were accumulated on the membrane as the operation time increased. In comparing of raw CPBP and filtered CPBP, the viscosity of CPBP treated UF was decreased and $\Delta$E value of treated samples was increased. Thermal efficiencies of spray drying process were increased by increasing inlet temperature, feed rate and feed concentration.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.581-589
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• 2005

Recently, membrane processes have been replacing the conventional processes for waste water treatment to produce better quality of effluent and to meet more stringent regulations because of water shortage. However, using membrane processes for water treatment has confronted with fouling and difficulty in treating dissolved organic pollutants. In this study, membrane process equipped with crossflow microfiltration is combined with coagulation process using alum and PAC to improve permeability and treatment efficiency. The effects of coagulant dosage and optimum membrane operating conditions were investigated from measurement of permeate flow, cumulative volume, total resistance, particle size, dissolved organic pollutant, dissolved aluminium and quality of effluent. Characteristic of PAC coagulation was compared with that of alum coagulation. PAC coagulation reduced membrane fouling because of forming larger particle size and increased permeate velocity and cumulative volume. Less dissolved organic pollutants and dissolved aluminum made decreasing-rate of permeate velocity being lowered. At using $0.2\;{\mu}m$ membrane, cake filtration observed. At using $0.45\;{\mu}m$ membrane, there was floc breakage due to shear stress occurred born circulating operation. It made floc size smaller than membrane pore size, which subsequently to decrease permeate velocity and to increase total resistance. The optimum coagulation dosage was $300{\pm}50\;mg/L$ for both alum and PAC. PAC coagulation was more efficiently used with $0.2\;{\mu}m$ membrane, and the highest permeate flux was in using $0.45\;{\mu}m$membrane. The greatest efficiency of treatment was as follows; turbidity 99.8%, SS 99.9%, $BOD_5$ 94.4%, $COD_{Cr}$ 95.4%, T-N 54.3%, T-P 99.8%.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.588-597
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• 2004

In this research, we investigated the variation of transmembrane pressure and permeate water quality with pre coagulation and sedimentation with iron based coagulant and chlorination of feed water for PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) based MF membrane filtration. NaCIO was fed to the membrane module with dosage of 0.5mg/L and maintained during filtration. To observe the effect of raw water, three types of raw and processed waters, including river surface water, coagulated water and coagulated-settled water, were applied. In case of river surface water, the transmembrane pressure increased drastically in 500 hours of operation. On the contrary, no significant increase in transmembrane pressure was observed for 1,200 hours of operation for coagulated water and coagulated-settled waters. The turbidity of permeate was lower than a detection limit of equipment for all raw waters. The removal efficiency of humic substances of coagulated water and coagulated-settled water was approximate ten times of that of surface river water. And, the removal efficiency of TOC and DOC was approximate two times of that of surface river water. From the results of plant operation, stable operation was maintained at $0.9m^3/m^2{\cdot}day$ filtration flux through the combination of pre-coagulation and pre-chlorination. However, the water quality of permeate was the best when pre-coagulation-sedimentation process was combined with pre-chlorination.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 2016

In this study, a fluorescent silica nano particle is used as the surrogate for challenging test of membrane surface integrity. The particles are functionalized by a fluorescent dying agent so that as an ultraviolet light is imposed a bright fluorescent image from the particles can be taken. If a membrane surface is damaged and has a compromised part larger than the size of surrogate the fluorescent particles would pass through and contained in the permeate. An operator can directly notice whether the membrane surface is damaged or not by detecting a fluorescent image taken from the permeate. Additionally, the size of compromised part is estimated through analysing the fluorescent image in which we surmise the mass of particles included in the permeate by calculating an average RGB value of the image. The pilot scale experiments showed that this method could be applied successfully to determine if a membrane surface had a damaged parts regardless of the test condition. In the testing on the actual damaged area of $4.712mm^2$, the lowest error of estimating the damaged area was -1.32% with the surrogate concentration of 80 mg/L, flux of $40L/m^2/hr$ for 25 minutes of detection. A further study is still going on to increase the lowest detection limit and thus decrease the error of estimation.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.77-94
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• 2015

Ultrafiltration membranes have several advantages over conventional drinking-water treatment. However, this technology presents major limitations, such as irreversible fouling and low removal of natural organic matter. Fouling depends heavily on the raw-water quality as well as on the operating conditions of the process, including flux, permeate recovery, pre-treatment, chemical cleaning, and backwashing. Starting with the premise that the optimisation of operating variables can improve membrane performance, different experiments were conducted in a pilot plant located in Granada (Spain). Several combinations of permeate and backwashing flow rates, backwashing frequencies, and aeration flow rates were tested for low-quality water coming from Genil River with the following results: the effluent quality did not depend on the combination of operating conditions chosen; and the membrane was effective for the removal of microorganisms, turbidity and suspended solids but the yields for the removal of dissolved organic carbon were extremely low. In addition, the threshold transmembrane pressure (-0.7 bar) was reached within a few hours and it was difficult to recover due to the low efficiency of the chemical cleanings. Moreover, greater transmembrane pressure due to fouling also increased the energy consumption, and it was not possible to lower it without compromising the permeate recovery. Finally, the intensification of aeration contributed positively to lengthening the operation times but again raised energy consumption. In light of these findings, the feasibility of ultrafiltration as a single treatment is questioned for low-quality influents.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.13-21
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• 2011

This study investigated the fouling behavior of $Al_2O_3$ colloids on polyethylene microfiltration membrane. To examine the effect of operation variation on fouling, operating pressure was increased from 0.49 to 1.96 bar along with time elapses and then was reduced to 0.49 bar reversely. A hysteresis behavior was observed in the membrane permeate flux over pressure, revealing different fluxes at the same pressure according to the pressure control type, increasing and decreasing. Permeate resistance and its rate of increase was higher in the decreasing pressure cycle than in the increasing pressure cycle. At the initial period of filtration, fouling mechanism for the both cycles was governed by the cake filtration. The degree of fouling was higher in the decreasing pressure cycle compared with in the increasing pressure cycle.