• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.323-331
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• 2020

With the increasing demand on reverse osmosis (RO) membranes for water purification worldwide, the number of disposed membrane elements is expected to increase accordingly. Thus, recycling and reuse of end-of-life RO membranes should be a global environmental action. In this work, we aim to reuse the spent RO membrane for nanofiltration (NF) and ultrafiltration (UF) process by subjecting the spent membrane to solvent and oxidizing solution treatment, respectively. Our results showed that solvent-treated RO membrane could perform as good as commercial NF membrane by achieving similar separation efficiencies, but with reduced water permeability due to membrane surface fouling. By degrading the polyamide layer of RO membrane, the transformed membrane could achieve high water permeability (85.6 L/㎡.h.bar) and excellent rejection against macromolecules (at least 87.4%), suggesting its reuse potential as UF membrane. More importantly, our findings showed that in-situ transformation on the spent RO membrane using solvent and oxidizing solution could be safely conducted as the properties of the entire spiral wound element did not show significant changes upon prolonged exposure of these two solutions. Our findings are important to open up new possibilities for the discarded RO membranes for reuse in NF and UF process, prolonging the lifespan of spent membranes and promoting the sustainability of the membrane process.

• 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.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.2205-2213
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• 2000

To investigate removal efficiency of dissolved matter by NF and RO, a pilot plant was operated for six months using groundwater treated by UF membrane. After the pilot plant operation, we performed autopsy test to identify characteristics of foulant attached on the membrane surface applying the used NF and RO in the pilot plant test. In autopsy test, we measured permeate flux and recovery rate of flux by chemical cleaning in each membrane. We also analyzed chemical cleaning disposal to examine component of foulant. Permeate flux of NF and RO1 showed rapid decline after 100 days of operation. Especially, reduction of specific flux in RO1 was more serious than in NF. Specific flux of RO2 with a low recovery rate resulted in gradual flux decline. Removal efficiencies of dissolved inorganic matters as a conductivity were 76.3%, 88.2% and 95.3% respectively for NF, RO1 and RO2, and RO2 presented the highest removal efficiency. And those of dissolved organic matters as TOC were about 80% for both NF and RO. The specific flux of membranes declined gradually from the feed water inlet to outlet of the membrane module and it showed that membrane fouling increased along the feed flow direction. Namely, concentration of pollutants became higher and volume of feed water was less as the feed flow approached to the outlet. It seemed that major foul ants were Ca consolidated into inorganic material and Si consolidated into organic material on the membrane surface. Fe was a great contribution to irreversible fouling. The SEM results indicated that the organic matter was attached to the first layer, closer to the membrane, and then inorganic matter with tetragonal shape layered over them. We could not observe biofouling because microorganism, which was cause of biofouling, was almost pretreated in UF membrane.

• 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 Journal
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.17-24
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• 1999

Milk was concentrated by commercial tubular membranes, The permeation rate reduction of hydrophilic membranes (sulfonated poly sulfone (SPSf), polyacrylonitrile (PAN), cellulose acetate (CA)) was found not to be large but hydrophobic membranes to be pronounced considerably, In the case of UF concentration total solids, proteins, fats and minerals were increased as concentrated but carbohydrates decreased. NF showed the same behavior except carbohydrates showing small reduction rate.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1273-1280
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• 2008

This study sought to establish the optimum operating condition for the recovery of caustic (NaOH) solution from mercerization in textile process. As main factors, the silt density index (SDI) evaluation of ceramic membrane for the application of nanofiltration/reverse osmosis (NF/RO) membrane, the recovery yield measurement of caustic solution for the application of polymeric membrane, the optimum condition of chemical cleaning for the membrane regeneration, the optimum removal condition of total organic carbon (TOC), turbidity, color, and the permeate flux of ceramic membrane/polymeric membrane combined process were investigated. As results, ceramic ultrafiltration (UF) in the first step and nanofiltration (NF) in the second step were found to be suitable for the removal of total suspended solid (TSS), residual organics, turbidity including color, and the recovery of caustic solution from caustic wastewater stream in mercerization process. When only the ceramic UF membrane was used, the rejection efficiency of both of TSS and turbidity was more than 99.0%, and the color and TOC were rejected about 74.7% and 49.2%, respectively. Meanwhile, the combined membrane precess of UF and NF membranes showed even more efficient removal abilities and thus more than 99.9% of TSS and turbidity, 87.7% of color, and 78.2% of TOC were removed. In particular, 91.3% of NaOH was successfully recovered with 83.7% of total volume in the combined membrane process. With this regard, a clean caustic solution was obtained in a high purity, which can be reused for mercerization process, expecting to offer economical benefits.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.12-12
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• 2004

A brief introduction was given in this paper for the research and development on membrane science and technology in China. Ion exchange membranes and electrodialysis, MF, UF, NF and RO membranes, gas separation (GS) membranes, pervaporation (PV), membranes, inorganic membranes (IM) and membrane reactors (MR) were involved.(omitted)

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.73-86
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• 2014

Membrane fouling is a major challenge limiting the use of membrane applications. In this study high induced shear rates were utilized at the membrane surface in order to reduce the organic and inorganic scaling by using the torsional vibration of flat sheet membranes. The performances of a vibratory shear-enhanced processing (VSEP) system for the ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membrane filtration of industrial dairy wastewater were investigated. The vibration and non-vibration methods were compared with the same membrane and operational parameters during the purification of real dairy industrial process wastewater. In the initial experiments, short-term tests were carried out in which the effects of vibration amplitude, recirculation flow rate and transmembrane pressure were measured and compared. The permeate flux, turbidity, conductivity and chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction of dairy wastewater were investigated by using UF, NF and RO membranes with vibration and non-vibration methods. In the subsequent experiments, concentration tests were also carried out. Finally, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that the vibration method gave a better performance, which can be attributed to the higher membrane shear rate, which reduces the concentration of solids at the membrane, and the transmission.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1994.04a
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• pp.21-22
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• 1994

정밀화학공업에서 고부가 제품을 생산하기 위해 다양한 정제공정을 사용하고 있다. 특히 염료, 안료 제조공정에서 사용되는 다량의 염을 정제공정에서 효과적으로 분리시키는 것은 중요하다. Diafiltration을 이용한 탈염공정에는 주로 UF막이 분자량이 큰 물질의 탈염에 사용되었다. 그러나 NF막의 개발에 따라 분자량이 작은 의약품, 염료등의 정체에 분리막을 이용한 Diafiltration이 적극 사용되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 염료 중간체인 2-formylbenzene sulfonic acid, sodium salt(FBS)의 정체에 NF막의 적용가능성을 상업용 막을 이용하여 조사하였다.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.233-243
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• 2018

In this manuscript, $35m^3/d$ NF unit was designed and applied for surface water treatment of the River Nile water. Intake of Embaba drinking water treatment plant was selected to install that unit at since; it has the lowest water quality index value through the examined 6 sites in greater Cairo area. The optimized operating conditions were feed and permeate flow, 40 and $7m^3/d$, feed pressure 2.68 bar and flux rate $37.7l/m^2h$. The permeate water was drinkable according to Egyptian Ministerial decree 458/2007 for the tested parameters (physic-chemical, heavy metals, organic, algal, bacteriological and parasitological). Single and double sand filters were used as pretreatment for NF membranes but continuous clogging for sand filters moved us to use UF membrane as pretreatment for NF membrane.