• Membrane Journal
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.384-391
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• 2013

We prepared composite membrane which was made with polysulfone supported hollow fiber membrane coated with Hyflon AD to eliminate $CO_2$ gas from mixed-gases which were generated in DME manufacturing processes. The performance of module about simulated flaring gas was measured by using manufactured composite membrane. 1-stage evaluation result shows $CO_2$ concentration was below 3% at 1.2 MPa and at Stage cut 0.24 above. In addition $CO_2$ removal rate and $CH_4$ recovery rate was 80% respectively at the same condition. 2-stage evaluation result shows, when the $CO_2$ concentration of product gas was fixed at 5%, recycled $CO_2$ at stage cut 0.074 had the same concentration as the feed gas and the recovery rate of $CH_4$ was 99% at the moment.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.182-191
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• 2002

Polyamide reverse osmosis (RO) membrane with thin film composite structure was commercialized for seawater desalination process. Recently, it has been reported that some RO processes for high pressure and recovery leads to reducing in energy cost and pretreatment scale compared with earlier process. The development of energy recovery, pumping device and RO elements with high pressure and rejection made high pressure and recovery process possible. In this study, permeation properties of commercialized seawater RO membrane were investigated under the condition of high pressure and recovery. In the RO sheet membrane test 3.5% NaCl of synthetic seawater was used. The synthetic seawater contained only sodium chloride. In the RO module test, natural seawater was used at Happo Bay, Masan city. As the results, RO membrane with high durability of pressure was better than that with high rejection of seawater for high pressure and recovery process. Seawater rejection of high concentrate tends to be improved by high pressure operation.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.246-251
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• 2003

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is composed of the brain capillaries, which are lined by endothelial cells displaying extremely tight intercellular junctions. Several attempts at creating an in vitro model of the BBB have been met with moderate success as brain capillary endothelial cells lose their barrier properties when isolated in cell culture. This may be due to a lack of recreation of the in vivo endothelial cellular environment in these models, including nearly constant contact with astrocyte foot processes. This work is motivated by the hypothesis that growing endothelial cells on one side of an ultra-thin, highly porous membrane and differentiating astrocyte or astrogliomal cells on the opposite side will lead to a higher degree of interaction between the two cell types and therefore to an improved model. Here we describe our initial efforts towards testing this hypothesis including a procedure for membrane fabrication and methods for culturing endothelial cells on these membranes. We have fabricated a 1 $\mu\textrm{m}$ thick, 2.0 $\mu\textrm{m}$ pore size, and 55% porous membrane with a very narrow pore size distribution from low-stress silicon nitride (SiN) utilizing techniques from the microelectronics industry. We have developed a base, acid, autoclave routine that prepares the membranes for cell culture both by cleaning residual fabrication chemicals from the surface and by increasing the hydrophilicity of the membranes (confirmed by contact angle measurements). Gelatin, fibronectin, and a 50/50 mixture of the two proteins were evaluated as potential basement membrane protein treatments prior to membrane cell seeding. All three treatments support adequate attachment and growth on the membranes compared to the control.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.100-108
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• 2022

Among various industries, the textile industry uses the largest amount of water for coloring textiles which leads to a large amount of wastewater containing various kinds of dye. There are various methods for the removal of dye such as flocculation, ozone treatment, adsorption, etc. But these processes are not much successful due to the issue of recycling which enhances the cost. Alternatively, the membrane separation process for the treatment of dye in wastewater is already documented as the best available technique. Polymeric membrane and ceramic membrane are two separate groups of separation membranes. Advantages of ceramic membranes include the ease of cleaning, long lifetime, good chemical and thermal resistance, and mechanical stability. Ceramic membranes can be prepared from various sources and natural materials like clay, zeolite, and fly ash are very cheap and easily available. In this review separation of wastewater is classified into mainly three groups: ultrafiltration (UF), microfiltration (MF), and nanofiltration (NF) process.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.288-293
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• 2013

A group of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) with specific recognition for chiral (S)-ibuprofen were successfully prepared based on hydrogen bonds, utilizing ${\alpha}$-methacrylic acid as a functional monomer. The IR analysis of MIPs showed that the blue- and red-shifted hydrogen bonds were formed between templates and functional monomers in the process of self-assembly imprinting and re-recognition, respectively. According to UV-Vis analysis, we found that the ratio of host-guest complexes between template molecule and functional monomer was 1:1. The effect of cross-linker's quantity on the polymerization was studied by transmission electron microscope (TEM). The adsorption selectivity experiments indicated that MIPs exhibited higher selectivity to (S)-ibuprofen than those to ketoprofen and (R)-ibuprofen, (S)-ibuprofen's structural analogs.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.665-671
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• 2005

Initiation and activation of sperm motility are prerequisite processes for the contact and fusion of male and female gametes at fertilization. The phenomena are under the regulation of cAMP and $Ca^{2+}$ in vertebrates and invertebrates. Mammalian sperm requires $Ca^{2+}$ and cAMP for the activation of sperm motility. Cell signaling for the initiation and activation of sperm motility in the ascidians and salmonid fishes has drawn much attention. In the ascidians, the sperm-activating and attracting factors from unfertilized egg require extracellular $Ca^{2+}$ for activating sperm motility and eliciting chemotactic behavior toward the egg. On the other hand, the cAMP-dependent phosphorylation of protein is essential for the initiation of sperm motility in salmonid fishes. A decrease of the environmental $K^+$ concentration surrounding the spawned sperm causes $K^+$ efflux and $Ca^{2+}$ influx through the specific $K^+$ channel and dihydropyridine-sensitive L-/T-type $Ca^{2+}$ channel, respectively, thereby leading to the membrane hyperpolarization. The membrane hyperpolarization induces synthesis of cAMP, which triggers further cell signaling processes, such as cAMP-dependent protein phosphorylation, to initiate sperm motility in salmonid fishes. This article reviews the studies on the physiological mechanisms of sperm motility and its cell signaling in aquatic species.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.363-375
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• 2019

Micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF) is a surfactant-based separation technique and has been investigated for the removal of heavy metals from wastewater. The performance of heavy metals removal from wastewater through MEUF relies on membrane characteristics, surfactant properties, various operational parameters including operating pressure, surfactant and heavy metal concentration, pH of the solution, temperature, and presence of dissolved solutes and salts. This study presents an overview of literature related to MEUF with respect to the all significant parameters including membranes, surfactants, operating conditions and MEUF hybrid processes. Moreover, this study illustrates that MEUF is an adaptable technique in various applications. Nowadays water contamination caused by heavy metals has become a serious concern around the globe. MEUF is a significant separation technique in wastewater treatment that should be acknowledged, for the reason that removal of heavy metals contamination even at lower concentrations becomes achievable, which is evidently made known in the presented review. Hybrid processes presented the better results as compared to MEUF. Future studies are required to continue the experimental work with various combinations of surfactant and heavy metals, and to investigate for the treatment of concentrated solutions, as well as for real industrial wastewater.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.39-52
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• 2018

Direct membrane filtration (DMF) of wastewater has many advantages over conventional biological wastewater treatment processes. DMF is not only compact, but potentially energy efficient due to the lack of biological aeration. It also produces more biosolids that can be used to produce methane gas through anaerobic digestion. Most of ammoniacal nitrogen in wastewater is preserved in effluent and is used as fertilizer when effluent is recycled for irrigation. In this study, a technical feasibility of DMF was explored. Organic and nitrogen removal efficiencies were compared between DMF and membrane bioreactor (MBR). Despite the extremely high F/V ratio, e.g., $14.4kg\;COD/m^3/d$, DMF provided very high COD removal efficiencies at ~93%. Soluble microbial products (SMP) and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) were less in DMF sludge, but membrane fouling rate was far greater than in MBR. The diversity of microbial community in DMF appeared very narrow based on the morphological observation using optical microscope. On the contrary, highly diverse microbial community was observed in the MBR. Microorganisms tended to form jelly globs and attach on reactor wall in DMF. FT-IR study revealed that the biological globs were structurally supported by feather-like materials made of secondary amines. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) study showed microorganisms mainly resided on the external surface of microbial globs rather than the internal spaces.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.123-146
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• 2014

Safe water has becoming a competitive resource in many parts of the world due to increasing population, prolonged droughts, climate change etc. The development of economical and stable materials and methods for providing the fresh water in adequate amounts is the need of the water industry. Nanomaterials have unique characteristics e.g., large surface areas, size, shape, and dimensions etc. that make them particularly attractive for removing various contaminants from polluted waters. Nanotechnology based multifunctional and highly efficient membrane processes are providing affordable solutions in the new era that do not rely on large infrastructures or centralizes systems. The objective of the current study is to review the possible applications of the membrane based nanomaterials/composites for the removal of various contaminations from polluted waters. The article will briefly overview the availability and practice of different nanomaterials based membranes for removal of bacteria and viruses, organic compounds and inorganic solutes etc. present in surface water, ground water, seawater and/or industrial water. Finally, recommendations are made based on the current practices of nanofiltration membranes in water industry for a stand-alone membrane filtration system in removing various types of contaminants from polluted waters.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.18-21
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• 1996

Virus and DNA removal in bio-drug manufacturing processes has received a great deal of attention in recent years. Removing of a virus using a membrane process is a promising method, because inactivated virus can be removed from the bio-drug and the process can be used as an additional and security inactivation after the method of general heat-inactivation of the virus in the bio-drug. The FDA and the biopharmaceutical industry have recently announced strict guidelines for impurities of virus and DNA contamination. The regulatory guidelines on residual amounts of DNA in mammalian cell culture products require DNA contamination of less than 100 pg/dose. Therefore, permeation and rejection of DNA through the porous membranes have become important in the application of DNA removal in bio-drug manufacturing using membrane technology. In this study, the permeation of DNA and chromatin through regenerated cellulose hollow fibers that have a mean pore diameter of 15 nm was investigated.