• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.13 no.6
• /
• pp.259-290
• /
• 2022

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), due to their excellent physical, chemical and mechanical properties and their ability to prepare new membranes with attractive properties, have found applications in water and wastewater technology. CNT functionalization, which involves the introduction of different types of functional groups into pure CNTs, improves the capabilities of CNT membranes for water and wastewater treatment. It turns out that CNT-based membranes have many advantages, including enhanced water permeability, high selectivity and anti-fouling properties. However, their full-scale application is still limited by their high cost. With their tremendous separation efficiency, low biofouling potential and ultra-high water flux, CNT membranes have the potential to be a leading technology in water treatment in the future, especially in desalination.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.341-353
• /
• 2016

Papermaking reconstituted tobacco is an important strategy for recycling the waste tobacco residues. To indentify the influences of the inorganic components on harmful components delivery in cigarette smoke, a self-made electrodialysis stack was assembled to desalt the tobacco extract. The influences of the applied current and extract content on the removal rate of the inorganic ions were investigated. Results indicated that the applied current was a dominant impact on the desalination performance. High currents lower than the limiting current density could accelerate the desalting efficiency but cause higher energy consumption. A current of 2 A, or current density of ${\sim}11mA{\cdot}cm^{-2}$, was an optimal choice by considering both the energy consumption and desalting efficiency. A 20% tobacco extract was an appropriate content for the electrodialysis process. More than 90% of inorganic ions could be removed under the optimum condition. The preliminary result indicated that removal of inorganic components was beneficial to decrease the harmful component delivery in cigarette smoke. Naturally, ED is an environmentally friendly and high-effective technology for desalting the tobacco extract.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.5 no.3
• /
• pp.183-195
• /
• 2014

The efficiency of two metal ions (cadmium, zinc) removal from aqueous solutions by ultrafiltration (UF) and Polymer Enhanced Ultrafiltration (PEUF) processes were investigated in this work. The UF and PEUF studies were carried out using an ultrafiltration tangential cell system equipped with 5.000 MWCO regenerated cellulose. A water-soluble polymer: the polyacrylic acid (PAA) was used as complexant for PEUF experiments. The effects of transmembrane pressure, pH, metal ions and loading ratio on permeate fluxes and metal ions removals were evaluated. In UF process, permeate fluxes increase linearly with increasing pH for different transmembrane pressure, which may be the consequence of the formation of soluble metal hydroxyl complexes in the aqueous phase. In PEUF process, above pH 5.0, the Cd(II) retention reaches a plateau at 90% and Zn(II) at 80% for L = 5. Also, cadmium retention at different L is greater than zinc retention at pH varying from 5.0 to 9.0. In a mixture solution, cadmium retention is higher than zinc for different loading ratio, this is due to interactions between carboxylic groups of PAA and metal ions and more important with cadmium ions.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.57-64
• /
• 2014

Carbon electrodes for capacitive deionization were fabricated through mixing two different carbon powders (activated carbon powder, carbon black) with different particle sizes to investigate physical or electrochemical properties and finally desalination performances of the electrodes with various compositions of two carbon powders in weight and were compared with the electrode consisting of activated carbon. As a result, the electrode structure became more packed as increasing the amount of carbon black and resulted in 10% increase in mesopore fraction. The specific capacitance obtained from cyclic voltammograms of various electrodes showed that the electrode containing carbon black only had 107.4 F/g, while the specific capacitance of the electrode having more amount of carbon black increased and was higher than the one having no carbon black. The results of desalination runs in a capacitive deionization cell exhibited that the electrode having the highest amount of carbon black (1 wt%) in this study had the highest desalting efficiency, and no significant pH variation was observed during the runs. It was analyzed using accumulated charge that the fraction of non-Faraday current increased as the amount of carbon black increased in the electrodes. It can be concluded that the addition of carbon black changed the electrode structure resulting in an increase in the fraction of mesopore and finally enhanced the desalting efficiency by decreasing Faraday current.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.22 no.5
• /
• pp.369-380
• /
• 2012

A one-dimensional numerical model based on the energy and mass equations have been developed to predict the trans membrane water vapor flux and thermal efficiency under various operating conditions in Direct Contact Membrane Distillation (DCMD) process. The model validation have been carried out by experimental data from literature and showed good agreement. The effect of operating parameters such as brine inlet temperature and velocity, and distillate inlet temperature and velocity to increase water vapor flux and thermal efficiency were predicted by the steady-state model. The results showed that the inlet temperature and velocity in brine side are dominant factors to control the water vapor flux and thermal efficiency because the effect of inlet temperature and velocity in brine side showed the higher water vapor flux and thermal efficiency than that of inlet temperature and velocity in distillate side. The water vapor flux was increased 3.4 times in the range of 21.22 $kg/m^2h$ to 71.26 $kg/m^2h$ and the thermal efficiency was increased 37.5% in that of 0.556 to 0.765 with increasing brine inlet temperature from $60^{\circ}C$ to $95^{\circ}C$. Meanwhile, the water vapor flux was increased 30% in that of 27.91 $kg/m^2h$ to 36.33 $kg/m^2h$ and thermal efficiency increased 7.5% in that of 0.6 to 0.646 as the brine inlet velocity was increased from 60 m/h to 300 m/h.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2010.09a
• /
• pp.40-48
• /
• 2010

Saemangeum reclaimed area is needed to construct much green zone to make high-quality multi-functional land such as tide embankment, lake dike, industrial complex, environmental spaces, etc. However, growth of plants is somewhat difficult because a salinity of Saemangeum soil is very high and a soil fertility, water content of soil are low. Therefore, it is essential to initial desalination of soil and continuous management for planting base. It is recommended that a group of grassland to raise the efficiency of covering should be made in the first stage and a forest by improvement of vegetation should be made in the mid and long term stage. It is recommended that the construction of vegetation base should be made with a regular thickness of soil of good quality in multi-functional area such as a shrub and wood. In case of construction of a windbreak forest, it is necessary to make a wood base of suitable depth using soil brought from another place or filling of soil. Also, it is necessary to keep a maintenance of woods in early stage. Saemangeum reclaimed land will be brand-named worldwide tourist attractions due to construction of much green zone having high quality multi-functional facilities.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.60-65
• /
• 2015

This paper deals with performance characteristics and efficiencies of Pelton turbine can be applied as one of ERDs (Energy Recovery Devices) of PRO (Pressure Retarded Osmosis) system for desalination. The objective of this study is experimentally estimating the performance of micro-scale Pelton turbine for PRO pilot plant. Especially the performance characteristics with variations of jet nozzle diameter of Pelton turbine are discussed in detail. In order to do this, lab scale test rig of Pelton turbine was made for performance test, which includes water tank, Pelton wheel with buckets, jet nozzle and torque brake and so on. The parameter effects related on Pelton turbine's efficiency were investigated and discussed on the influence of the variations of load and speed ratio.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.271-278
• /
• 2018

In this study, the carbon electrodes using activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were prepared for the capacitive deionization process. The Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) was used as the binder and the mixed ACFs with proper solvent was cast on the commercial graphite sheets to prepare the carbon electrodes. At this moment, the different particle sizes of ACFs were applied and the mixing ratio of solvent, PVDF and ACFs, 80 : 2 : 18 and 80 : 5 : 15, were used for the electrode preparation. Then their salt removal efficiencies were characterized under the various operating conditions, adsorption potential and time, desorption potential and time, concentration of feed NaCl solution and flow rate as well. Typically, the salt removal efficiency of 53.6% were obtained at the particle size below $32{\mu}m$, mixing ratio 80 : 2 : 18, adsorption 1.2 V and 3 min, desorption -0.1V and 1 min, and 15 mL/min flow rate of NaCl 100 mg/L.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.277-286
• /
• 2019

In 2014, the first demineralization plant, using nanofiltration (NF) membrane coupled with renewable energies was realized at Al Annouar high school of Sidi Taibi, Kenitra, Morocco. This project has revealed difficulties related to the membrane performances loss (pressure increase, flux decline, poor water quality of the produced water and increase of energy consumption), as consequences of membrane fouling. To solve this problem, an autopsy of the membrane was done in order to determine the nature and origin of the fouling. The samples of membrane and fouling were then analyzed by scanning electron microscopy using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) connected with an energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) detection system and X-ray diffractometer (XRD). Moreover, three cleaning solutions (hydrochloric acid, nitric acid and sulfuric acid) were tested and assessed in a single cleaning step to find the suitable one for the fouled membrane to regain its initial permeability and performances. The analysis of the experimental results showed that the fouling layer is mainly composed of calcium carbonate (inorganic fouling). Results showed also that the permeability is improved by the hydrochloric acid cleaning (pH=3) with a cleaning efficiency of 93%. Cleaning efficiency did not exceed 75 % with nitric acid (pH=3) and 40 % with sulfuric acid (pH=3).

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.28 no.5
• /
• pp.307-319
• /
• 2018

Ion-exchange membrane (IEM) has fixed charge groups and is a separation membrane which is capable of selectively transporting ions of the opposite polarity. Recently, the interest in IEMs has been increasing as the importance of the desalination and energy conversion processes using them as the key components has increased. Since the IEMs determine the efficiency of the above process, it is necessary to improve the separation performance and durability of them and also to lower the expensive membrane price, which is a hindrance to the widening application of the IEM process. Therefore, it is urgent to develop high-performance and low-cost IEMs. Among various types of IEMs, pore-filled membranes prepared by filling ionomer into a porous polymer substrate are intermediate forms of homogeneous membranes and heterogeneous membranes. The production cost would be cheap like the case of heterogeneous membranes because of the use of inexpensive supports and the reduction of the amount used of raw materials, and at the same time, they exhibit excellent electrochemical characteristics close to homogeneous membranes. In this review, major research and development trends of pore-filled IEMs, which are attracting attention as high-performance and low-cost IEMs, have been summarized and reported according to the application fields.