• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.53-67
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• 2013

In this study, ageing characteristics of an industrial hollow-fiber membrane module were investigated after 50 months of drinking water production. For this purpose, the industrial module was opened to make 18 smaller modules with hollow-fibers taken from different parts of the industrial module. These modules were probed by the use of a magnetic nanoparticle (NP) challenge test based on magnetic susceptibility (K) measurement of permeate. No magnetic susceptibility was detected in permeate when the challenge test was performed on an intact membrane module, indicating the complete retention of nanoparticles by the membrane. The compromised membrane module can be successfully detected by means of magnetic susceptibility measurement in permeate. So, this study clearly demonstrates that ageing of ultrafiltration membranes can be monitored by measuring the magnetic susceptibility of permeate from an ultrafiltration membrane module. These results showed that the hollow fibers in the center zones of the bundle would age faster than those in the outer zones around the bundle. This result is in agreement with numerical simulation (Daurelle et al. 2011).

• Membrane Journal
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2008

After membrane fouling factors in acrylic wastewater were minimized by pretreatment process accompanied with coagulation-filtration-neutralization, it was utilized in UF/RO process. After composing of ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis module set according to types and kinds of membrane, the separation characteristics were examined with the variation temperature and pressure using pretreated acrylic wastewater by membrane module sets. It was found that permeate flux of UF module in module set 4 was about two${\sim}$three times larger than that of UF module in module set 1. Final quantity of permeate from the module set 2 and module set 3 combined with tubular module was shown very good result. It was shown that the removal efficiency of TDS, T-N and COD was very low and was not dependent on the variation of temperature and pressure in all UF modules. The removal efficiency of TDS, T-N and COD was very excellent in RO module. Final water quality of acrylic wastewater was satisfied with effluent allowances limit and membrane module sets were ascertained to reuse wastewater.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.147-154
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• 2019

The permeate flux increments of a natural convection instability flow (NCIF) caused by the change of inclined angles ($0{\sim}180^{\circ}$) to gravity of the commercial membrane module were tested in the dead-end membrane filtration of BSA protein solution. The NCIF are more generated as the inclined angle increased from $0^{\circ}$ to $180^{\circ}$, and the occurred NCIF enhances permeate flux. However, the commercial module can only generate NCIF by completely removing the air gap in module. Since the custom design module designed in this study is permeated in a crossward direction ($90^{\circ}$), NCIF is always generated even if there is the air gap in module. The results of membrane filtration of BSA and dextran solutions using a custom design module showed that the flux in the crossward direction is increased to about 3.8 times for BSA solution and 1.8 times for dextran solution after two hours of operation due to the occurrence of NCIF. Also, NCIF generation is continued during 20 hours filtration of BSA solution, increasing the permeate flux to about 7.5 times. Since the custom design module with a permeation in the crossward direction and NCIF is always generated within the module, so it is possible to expect an increase in permeate flux due to the suppression of fouling formation, and thus to be utilized as a superb dead-end membrane module.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.14-25
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• 2016

The membrane separation process is growing very fast because of the high efficiency and low cost compared with other traditional process. The membrane process consists of various components such as membrane, module and mechanical part. The requirements for materials used in the membrane separation are becoming more and more demanding for achievement of high efficiency. Membrane module is also considered as the one of the key component in the membrane system. Recently composite materials have been considered as the membrane housing due to their excellent property and low cost compared with stainless module. In this review, a various types of glass fiber and composite material are summarized and their potential for the application of membrane system is discussed.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.173-176
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• 2000

This study was carried out to investigate the filtration characteristics of membrane modules according to hollow fiber dispersion for direct solid-liquid separation of activated sludge. 2 bundle, 4 bundle, and 10 bundle, and 10 bundle module used in this experiment according to hollow fiber dispersion was manufactured at laboratory and permeate flux and transmembrane pressure(TMP) of each module were observed under a suction pressure of 0.5kgf/c$m^2$. As the hollow fibers were dispersed, permeate flux was increased and TMP was decreased. Permeate flux and TMP of each module was 15.0 $\ell$/$m^2$.h and 31.8 cmHg for 2 bundle, 16.0 $\ell$/$m^2$ .h and 17.4 cmHg for 4 bundle, and 20.4 $\ell$/m2 .h and 31.8 cmHg for 10 bundle. In conclusion, the membrane fouling is expected to be decrease by maintaining lower TMP with hollow fiber dispersion.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.83-89
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• 2018

Hydrophobic porous PVDF hollow fiber membranes for Membrane Distillation (MD) were fabricated by a combination of thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) and stretching. The purpose of this study is to investigate the shape and operating conditions of the module and the effect of piping size on parallel connection. In the optimization experiment of the vacuum membrane distillation module, the flux decreased as the packing density and length of the membrane in the module increased. When the module was connected vertically, it was confirmed that the nearest to the inlet of the vacuum port was the highest flux. In selecting the size of the header pipe of the module, it was confirmed that the maximum flux is shown when the inner diameter area of the hollow fiber membrane and the inner diameter area of the header pipe are the same. Also, it is necessary to find the optimal linear velocity because the higher the linear velocity in the module, the higher the flux, but the pressure acting on the module also increases proportionally.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.377-383
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• 2017

A tube-type ceramic membrane for microfiltration was developed, and the membrane module comprised of three membranes was also applied to biological carbon and nitrogen removal processes for post-treatment. Manufacturing the microfiltration membrane was successful with the structure and boundary of the coated and support layers within the membrane module clearly observable. Total kjeldahl nitrogen removal from effluent was additionally achieved through the elimination of solids containing organic nitrogen by use of the ceramic membrane module. Removal of suspended solids and colloidal substances were noticeably improved after membrane filtration, and the filtration function of the ceramic membrane could also easily be recovered by physical cleaning. By using the ceramic membrane module, the system showed average removals of organics, nitrogen, and solids up to 98%, 80% and 99.9%, respectively. Thus, this microfiltration system appears to be an alternative and flexible option for existing biological nutrient removal processes suffering from poor settling performance due to the use of a clarifier.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.23-31
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• 2014

This study was accomplished to get the foundation design data of VMD(Vacuum Membrane Distillation) system for Solar Thermal VMD plant. VMD experiment was designed to evaluate thermal performance of VMD using PVDF(polyvinylidene fluoride) hollow fiber hydrophobic membranes. The total membrane surface area in a VMD module is $5.3m^2$. Experimental equipments to evaluate VMD system consists of various parts such as VMD module, heat exchanger, heater, storage tank, pump, flow meter, micro filter. The experimental conditions to evaluate VMD module were salt concentration, temperature, flow rate of feed sea water. Salt concentration of feed water were used by aqueous NaCl solutions of 25g/l, 35g/l and 45g/l concentration. As a result, increase in permeate flux of VMD module is due to the increasing feed water temperature and feed water flow rate. Also, decrease in permeate flux of VMD module is due to increasing salinity of feed water. VMD module required about 590 kWh/day of heating energy to produce $1m^3/day$ of fresh water.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.294-305
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• 2008

This study was focused on the investigation of the effects of membrane module configuration and the temperature of feed retentate flowing along with module length on membrane performance through model simulation. A simulation model of pervaporative dehydration through membrane module assemble in which a number of unit modules are connected in parallel or in series has been established. In this study, ethanol/water mixture was used as model mixture. Some of permeation parameters in the model were quantified directly from the real dehydration pervaporation of ethanol through a lab-made membrane. By adopting the coefficients determined empirically the simulation model could be of more practical value. The simulation of pervaporation with two basic module configurations, that is, parallel connection and series connection, could present the importance of process parameters such as feed rate, module connection mode, number of stages, and inter-stage heating.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.229-236
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• 2017

In this study, a direct contact membrane module was manufactured to be used in a pilot scale membrane distillation process to treat $3m^3/day$ of the digestate produced from anaerobic digestion of livestock manure. In order to investigate the performance of the membrane module, permeate flux was measured with and without spacer inside the module under various condition of temperature difference and cross flow velocity (CFV) through the membrane surfaces. Flux recovery rate after chemical cleaning was also investigated by applying three different cleaning methods. Additionally, thermal energy consumption was theoretically simulated based on actual pilot plant operation conditions. As results, we observed flux of the module with spacer was almost similar to the theoretically predicted value because the installation of spacer reduced the channeling effect inside the module. Under the same operating condition, the permeate flux also increased with increasing temperature difference and CFV. As a result of chemical in-line cleaning using NaOCl and citric acid for the fouled membranes, the recovery rate was 83.7% compared to the initial flux when NaOCl was used alone, and 87% recovery rate was observed when only citric acid was used. However, in the case of using only citric acid, the permeate flux was decreased at a rapid rate. It seemed that a cleaning by NaOCl was more effective to recover the flux of membrane contaminated by the organic matter as compared to a cleaning by citric acid. The total heat energy consumption increased with increasing CFV and temperature difference across the membrane. Thus, further studies should be intensively conducted to obtain a high permeate flux while keeping the energy consumption to a minimum for a practical application of membrane distillation process to treat wastewater.