• Membrane Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.171-176
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• 2011

Membrane fouling is formed due to pore blocking and cake formation by suspended material or contaminant in the membrane boundary layer. Membrane fouling is main obstacle for the wider application of industrial water treatment. The objective of this paper is to study the direct monitoring technique for the measuring the membrane fouling in real time. We investigated the extracted image of R, G, and B by visible light irradiation of 360 nm wavelength to measure the membrane fouling in real time by transparent foulant. The intensity of B of 400~499 nm wavelength range was stronger than that of R and G. The fluorescence image extraction analysis appeared to be a very attractive technique for monitoring the membrane fouling in real time.

• 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.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.645-652
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• 2016

A membrane module including grid was designed and introduced to MBR (membrane bio-reactor) for the purpose of better control of membrane fouling. It could be anticipated that the grid enhances the shear force of fluid-air mixture into the membrane surface by even-distributing the fluid-air to the membrane module. As MLSS concentration, packing density which is expressed in the ratio of the housing and the cross-sectional area of membrane fibers ($A_m/A_t$) and air-flow rate were changed, membrane foulings were checked by monitoring fouling resistances. The total fouling resistance ($R_c+R_f$) without grid installation (i.e., control) was $2.13{\times}10^{12}m^{-1}$, whereas it was reduced to $1.69{\times}10^{12}m^{-1}$ after the grid was installed. Regardless of the grid installation, the $R_c+R_f$ increased as the packing density increased from 0.09 to 0.28, however, the increment of resistance for the grid installation was less than that of the control. Increase in the air flow rate did not always guarantee the reduction of fouling resistance, indicating that the higher air flow rate can partially de-flocculate the activated sludge flocs, which led to severer membrane fouling. Consequently, installation of grids inside the housing have brought a beneficial effect on membrane fouling and optimum air flow rate is important to keep the membrane lowering fouling.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.177-184
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• 2011

Membrane fouling is an unavoidable phenomenon in operation of seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) and major obstacle for economic and efficient operation. When fouling occurs on the membrane surface, the permeate flux is decreased, on the contrary, the trans-membrane pressure (TMP) is increased, therefore operation and maintaining costs and potential damage of membranes are able to the pivotal risks of the process. Chemical cleaning process is essential to prevent interruptions for effective RO membrane filtration process. This study focused on proper chemical cleaning condition for polyamide RO membranes of 4 companies. Several chemical agents were applied for chemical cleaning under numbers of operating conditions. Additionally, a monitoring tool of FEEM as autopsy analysis method is adapted for the prediction of organic bio-fouling.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.801-806
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• 2004

The pilot study was conducted to (i) investigate the ability of various membrane integrity monitoring methods to detect changes in membrane integrity during operation, and (ii) determine the impact of membrane damage on microbial removal by microfiltration. Two variations of air pressure hold tests were investigated for direct integrity monitoring: pressure decay (PD) and diffusive air flow (DAF) tests which are most commonly used integrity tests for microfiltration (MF) membranes. Both PD and DAF tests were sensitive enough to detect one damaged fiber out of 66,000 under field operaing conditions. Indirect integrity monitoring such as turbidity and particle counting, however, responded poorly to defects in membrane systems. Microbial challenge study was performed using both new and deliberately damaged membranes, as well as varying the state of fouling of the membrane. This study demonstrated that MF membrane with nominal pore size $0.2{\mu}m$ was capable of removing various pathogens including coliform, spore, and cryptosporidium, at the level required by drinking water regulations, even when high operating pressures were applied. A sharp decrease in average log reduction value (LRV) was observed when one fiber was damaged, emphasizing the importance of membrane integrity in control of microbial contamination.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.15-29
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• 2014

Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination has gained wide and increasing acceptance around the world as a straightforward undertaking to alleviate the alarming water crisis. An enhanced monitoring of the quality of the water feeding in seawater RO (SWRO) plant through the application of an effective pretreatment option is one of the keys to the success of RO technology in desalination plants. Over the past 10 years, advances in ultrafiltration (UF) membrane technologies in application for water and wastewater treatment have prompted an impetus for using membrane pretreatment in seawater desalination plants. By integrating SWRO plant with UF pretreatment, the rate of membrane fouling can be significantly reduced and thus extend the life of RO membrane. With the growing importance and significant advances attained in UF pretreatment, this review presents an overview of UF pretreatment in SWRO plants. The advantages offered by UF as an alternative of pretreatment option are compared to the existing conventionally used technologies. The current progress made in the integration of SWRO with UF pretreatment is also highlighted. Finally, the recent advances pursued in UF technology is reviewed in order to provide an insight and hence path the way for the future development of this technology.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.97-100
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• 2003

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.224-231
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• 2019

Recently, the pollution of groundwater has become serious. In particular, the contamination of groundwater near livestock farms is becoming increasingly severe and it is difficult to drink with drinking water. In this paper, a groundwater purifier apparatus that can be installed in a community well was designed. The designed groundwater purifier apparatus enables a RO membrane filter and UV sterilization to remove pollutants, such as heavy metals, bacteria, and organic compounds. In addition, electrical conductivity, pressure, and flow sensors were added for remote monitoring. Remote monitoring of the system can determine the level of fouling and contamination of RO membrane filters through pressure and flow sensor data, and can record changes in the contamination and condition of groundwater through the electrical conductivity of the feed water. The designed groundwater purifier apparatus was installed at a farmhouse and remote monitoring. The result after 15 days of operating a groundwater purifier apparatus and analyzing the monitoring data revealed an average permeate water flow rate of 2.67L/min and an average water pressure of 7.09kgf/㎠, indicating that the RO Membrane filtered without fouling and clogging. The average electrical conductivity was 796.6 S/㎠ of the feed water and 55.6 S/㎠ of permeate water, which is similar to that of general tap water. Through this, it was confirmed that no pollutant occurred in the surroundings. Therefore, the designed groundwater purifier apparatus can confirm the replacement time of the RO membrane filter in advance through remote monitoring, and check the pollution state of the groundwater.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 2005

This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of submerged hollow fiber MF processes to treat secondary wastewater for water reuse. Specifically, membrane productivity and filtrate water quality were investigated under various operating conditions (i.e. flux, recovery, and backwash rate) at pilot-scale. Membrane fouling became more severe with increasing flux and recovery, suggesting that low flux operation (< 25 LMH) was desirable. At high flux operating(> 37.5 LMH), increasing backwash rate showed only limited success. The biofouling, quantified by PEPA and BFHPC, was also significant in wastewater reclamation, and biogrowth control by chlorine, were necessary to improve membrane productivity. Filtrate water qualities are in good compliance with water reuse regulations regardless of operating conditions (flux, recovery and backwash rate). Particle (e.g. turbidity) removal ranged from 89 to 98%, while only 11 to 21% of organics (e.g. NPDOC) were removed by MF membrane. Only small improvement in biostability (e.g. AOC) was achieved by MF system, and thus, without post disinfection, significant microorganisms might be present in the filtrate due to regrowth. Lastly, in order to further investigate pathogen removal, controlled microbial challenge tests were performed by monitoring Giardia, Cryptosporidium, bacteria and virus, and showed relatively good microbial removal.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.41-50
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• 2002

The streaming potential generated by the electrokinetic flow within electric double layer of charged microchannel is applied to determine the zeta potential of hollow-fiber membrane pore by using the general Helmholtz-Smoluchowski equation. The streaming potential is know to provide a useful real-time information on the surface property and the interaction between pore and particles in actual situations and physicochemical conditions. The influence of physicochemical parameters upon the filtration with hollow-fibers has been examined with an in-situ and simultaneously monitoring the streaming potential as well as permeate flux. In particular, the present study examined an experimental method to identify the effect of cake layer which can vary according to the axial position of a hollow-fiber and the progress of membrane fouling by measuring the position-dependent streaming potential. As the latex concentration increases, the permeate flux decreased but the streaming potential increased. The growth of cake layer has been mire developed with increasing latex concentration, however, the effect of surface charges of latexes deposited on the membrane surface leads to increase the streaming potential. With increasing ionic concentration of KCI, both the permeate flux and the streaming potential decrease. The increase of ionic concentration provides a compact cake layer due to the shrinkage of Debye length and the decreased streaming potential results from the weakened ionic flows owing to a thin diffusive double layer.