• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.811-823
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• 2009

Seawater desalination process using a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane has been considered as one of the most promising technologies in solving the water scarcity problems in many arid regions around the world. To protect RO membrane in the process, a thorough understanding of the pretreatment process is particularly needed. Seawater organic matters (SWOMs) may form a gel layer on the membrane surface, which will increase a concentration polarization. As the SWOMs can be utilized as a substrate, membrane biofouling will be progressed on the RO membrane surface, resulting in the flux decline and increase of trans-membrane pressure drop and salt passage. In the middle of disinfection, an optimal chlorine dosage and neutralizer (sodium bisulfite, SBS) should be practiced to prevent oxidizing the surface of RO membranes. Additional fundamental research including novel non-susceptible biofouling membranes would be necessary to provide a guide line for the proper pretreatment process.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.137-145
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• 2011

Membrane processes are major breakthrough for the removal of organic pollutants in water remediation. The separations of solutes depend on nature of the membranes and solutes. The separation performance depends on the nature of the solutes (i.e., molecular volume, polarity, and hydrophobicity) for the same membrane. As 4-chlorophenol is of more dipolemoment compared to 2-chlorophenol, the orientation of the molecule enables it pass through the pores of the membrane, which is of negatively charged and thus separation order follows: 2-chlorophenol > 4-chlorophenol. Hydrophobicity factor also supports the order. Addition of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) to chlorophenol solution shows remarkable increase in separation performance of the membrane. The improvement in separation is 1.8 and 1.5 times for 4- and 2- chlorophenol consecutively in case of 0.0082 M SDS (1cmc = 0.0082 M) in the solution. 4-chlorophenol has better attachment tendency with SDS because of its relatively more hydrophobic nature and thus reflects in performance i.e. the separation performance of 4-chlorophenol with SDS through the membrane is better compared to 2-chlorophenol.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.339-344
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• 2014

Different types of polyethersulfone (PES) support layer for a thin film composite (TFC) membrane were synthesized under various synthesis conditions using the phase inversion method to study the combined effects of substrate, adhesive, and pore former. The permeability, selectivity, pore structure, and morphology of the prepared membranes were analyzed to evaluate the membrane performance. The combined use of substrate, adhesive, and pore former produced a thinner dense top layer, with more straight finger-like pores. The pure water permeation (PWP) of the optimized PES membrane was $27.42L/m^2hr$ (LMH), whereas that of bare PES membrane was 3.24 LMH. Moreover, membrane selectivity, represented as divalent ion ($CaSO_4$) rejection, was not sacrificed under the synthesis conditions, which produced the dramatically enhanced PWP. The high permeability and selectivity of the PES membrane produced under the optimized synthesis conditions suggest that it can be utilized as a potential support layer for TFC membranes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.343-350
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• 2016

Membrane distillation (MD) is a novel separation process that have drawn attention as an affordable alternative to conventional desalination processes. However, membrane fouling and pore wetting are issues to be addressed prior to widespread application of MD. In this study, the influence of ultrasonic irradiation on fouling and wetting of MD membranes was investigated for better understanding of the MD process. Experiments were carried out using a direct contact membrane distillation apparatus Colloidal silica was used as a model foulants in a synthetic seawater (35,000 mg/L NaCl solution). A vibrator was directed attached to membrane module to generate ultrasonic waves from 25 kHz (the highest energy) to 75 kHz (the lowest energy). Flux and TDS for the distillate water were continuously monitored. Results suggested that ultrasonic irradiation is effective to retard flux decline due to fouling only in the early stage of the MD operation. Moreover, wetting occurred by a long-term application of ultrasonic rradiation at 75 kHz. These results suggest that the conditions for ultrasonic irradiation should be carefully optimized to maximize fouling control and minimize pore wetting.

• Korean Membrane Journal
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.55-60
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• 2004

In recent years, an increasing interest in membrane technology has been observed in chemical and environmental industry. Membrane technology has advantages of low cost, energy saving and environmental clean technology comparing to conventional separation processes. Pervaporation is one of new advanced membrane technology applied for separation of azeotropic mixtures, aqueous organic mixtures, organic solvent and petrochemical mixtures. Sodium alginate composite membranes were prepared for the enhancement of long-term stability of pervaporation performance of water-ethanol mixture using pervaporation. Sodium alginate membranes were crosslinked with CaCl$_2$ and coated with polyelectrolyte chitosan to protect washing out of calcium ions from the polymer. The surface structures of PAN and hydrolysed PAN membrane were confirmed by ATR Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR). A field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM; Jeol 6340F) operated at 15 kV. Concentration profiles for Ca in the membrane surface and membrane cross-section were taken by an energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyser (Jeol) attached to the field emission scanning electron microscopy (Jeol 6340F). Pervaporation experiments were done with several operation run times to investigate long-term stability of the membranes.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.229-234
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• 1995

Membrane process has been applied widely to petroleum chemistry, fine chemistry, polymer, electronics, food, bioprocessing, and wastewater treatment process. Membrane process has advantage that there's no phase change through separation, energy consumption is smaller than other separation processes. And equipment investment and operation cost are inxpensive too. We prepared the silicone rubber membrane and then separated the heavy metal ion from wastewater. Silicone rubber membrane was prepared using a superitical fluid process and heavy metal ions were separated from the chromium nitrate, ferric sulfate, cupric sulfate, nickel sulfate aqueous solution. The pressure difference between top and bottom of separation apparatus was preserved by vacuum pump, and the removal amount of heavy metal at each separation step were analyzed by instrumental analysis, AAS. The surface and pore of silicone rubber membrane was investigated using SEM, and the capability of wastewater treatment using a silicone rubber membrane was proposed as calculated removal rate of heavy metal after comparing removal amount of heavy metal to amount of heavy metal in mother solution by AAS analysis.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.124-131
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• 2024

Viruses have various applications in the biopharmaceutical industry. They are used in pesticide production, production of vaccines, gene transfers, cancer therapeutics, and more. The downstream processing of viruses is an essential step for their biological and pharmaceutical applications. Among the various processes, the purification of viruses is critical. Membrane chromatography plays a vital role in this process. While ion exchange membrane chromatography is a primarily used method, it has various limitations regarding size exclusion and insufficient purification. Also, it cannot be applied to the rapidly changing strains of viruses such as influenza. This review examines various improved methods of membrane chromatography or alternatives. It focuses on purification, viral recovery rates, and scalability of the methods.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.17-21
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• 2018

A series of laboratory scale experiments were performed to investigate the feasibility of membrane separation technology for natural rubber (NR) wastewater treatment and reuse. Three types of spiral wound membranes were employed in the cross-flow experiments. The NR wastewater pretreated by sand filtration and cartridge filtration was forced to pass through the ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes successively. The UF retentate, which containing abundant proteins, can be used to produce fertilizer, while the NF retentate is rich in quebrachitol and can be used to extract quebrachitol. The permeate produced by the RO module was reused in the NR processing. Furthermore, about 0.1wt% quebrachitol was extracted from the NR wastewater. Besides, the effluent quality treated by the membrane processes was much better than that of the biological treatment. Especially for total dissolved solids (TDS) and total phosphorus (T-P), the removal efficiency improved 53.11% and 49.83% respectively. In addition, the removal efficiencies of biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) exceeded 99%. The total nitrogen (T-N) and ammonia nitrogen (NH4-N) had approximately similar removal efficiency (93%). It was also found that there was a significant decrease in the T-P concentration in the effluent, the T-P was reduced from 200 mg/L to 0.34 mg/L. Generally, it was considered to be a challenging problem to solve for the biological processes. In brief, highly resource utilization and zero discharge was obtained by membrane separation system in the NR wastewater treatment.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.6590-6596
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• 2013

Carbon dioxide should be removed to increase the productivity of dimethyl ether(DME) from the DME manufacturing process. In this study, carbon dioxide can be removed using a physical absorbent through a solvent absorption method and membrane separation method. After performing the simulation for the carbon dioxide removal process, the energy consumption of the processes was compared. Methanol was used as a physical absorbent for the rectisol process, dimethyl ethers of polyethylene glycol for the Selexol process and N-methyl pyrrolidone for the Purisol process. By performing the simulation for each process, the energy consumption was compared. The Purisol process had the lowest energy consumption, followed in order by the Selexol process, Rectisol process and Membrane process. Therefore, the Purisol process was the most suitable method for the carbon dioxide process in the DME manufacturing process.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.107-115
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• 2008

The filtration barrier of kidney consists of endothelial cell, glomerular capillary, glomerular basement membrane, mesangial matrix, and podocyte. In aged rats, the morphological changes were shown in various parts, including the glomerulus. These changes were thickening of basement membrane and mesangial matrix, crescent formation of glomerular capillary, deformity of foot processes, glomerular sclerosis and obsolescence. But these glomerular morphologies are partial images or few serial images analysis. In this study, we examined the morphological alteration of glomerulus in the young and aged rats by light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and three dimensional reconstruction. We were found in aged rat glomerulus, expansion of urinary space and mesangial matrix, thickening and degrading of glomerular basement membrane, decreasing in podocyte foot processes, fragmentation of podocytic nucleus membrane. These observations indicate that may provide useful data for investigating the pathogenesis of age-related dysfunction of kidney.