• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.31-39
• /
• 2020

Anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) treatment has been widely studied in recent years because of the potential for production of bio-energy from wastewater and energy-positive operation of wastewater treatment plants. Several AnMBR systems, including those that incorporate ceramic membranes, take advantage of enhanced water permeability and low membrane fouling potentials. Given that differences in the ceramic membranes may influence the results of AnMBR studies, relevant details are discussed in this review, which focuses on the profiles of common ceramic membranes used in AnMBR, treatment and filtration performances of different anaerobic ceramic membrane bioreactors (AnCMBRs), and the membrane fouling mitigation methods available for effective AnCMBRs operation. The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive summary of AnCMBR performance, feed wastewater characteristics, operating conditions, and the methods available for effective fouling mitigation.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.97-109
• /
• 2020

Membrane fouling is the main drawback of membrane technology. Frequent membrane cleaning and membrane replacement are, therefore, required to reduce membrane fouling that causes permeate flux reduction, lower rejection, or higher operating pressure. Studies have proved that the alteration of membrane properties is the key controlling factor in lessening membrane fouling. Among stimuli-responsive membranes, thermo-responsive membrane is the most popular, with a drastic phase transition and swelling-shrinking behavior caused by the temperature change. In this study, the thermo-responsive ability of two commercial membranes, PolyCera® Titan membrane and PolyCera® Hydro membrane, at different temperatures was studied on the antifouling function of the membrane in palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment. The evaluation of the membrane's thermo-responsive ability was done through three cycles of adsorption (fouling) and desorption (defouling) processes in a membrane filtration process. The experimental result depicted that PolyCera® Hydro membrane had a higher membrane permeability of 67.869 L/㎡.h.bar than PolyCera® Titan membrane at 46.011 L/㎡.h.bar. However, the high membrane permeability of PolyCera® Hydro membrane was compensated with low removal efficiency. PolyCera® Titan membrane with a smaller mean pore size had better rejection performance than PolyCera® Hydro membrane for all tested parameters. On the other hand, PolyCera® Titan membrane had a better hydrodynamic cleaning efficiency than PolyCera® Hydro membrane regardless of the hydrodynamic cleaning temperature. The best hydrodynamic cleaning performed by PolyCera® Titan membrane was at 35℃ with the flux recovery ratio (FRR) of 99.17 ± 1.43%. The excellent thermo-responsive properties of the PolyCera® Titan membrane could eventually reduce the frequency of membrane replacement and lessen the use of chemicals for membrane cleaning. This outstanding exploration helps to provide a solution to the chemical industry and membrane technology bottleneck, which is the membrane fouling, thus reducing the operating cost incurred by the membrane fouling.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.8 no.5
• /
• pp.463-481
• /
• 2017

Bacteria have been considered as a major foulant that initiates the formation of biofilm on the polymeric membrane surface. Some polymeric membranes are naturally antibacterial and have low fouling properties, however, numerous efforts have been devoted to improve their antibacterial performance. These modifications are mostly carried out through blending the membrane with an antibacterial agent or introducing the antibacterial agent on the membrane surface by chemical grafting. Currently, a significant number of researches have reported nanocomposite membrane as a new approach to fabricate an excellent antibacterial membrane. The antibacterial nanoparticles are dispersed homogenously in membrane structure by blending method or coating onto the membrane surface. Aim of the modifications is to prevent the initial attachment of bacteria to membrane surface and kill bacteria when attached on the membrane surface. In this paper, several studies on antibacterial modified membranes, particularly for water treatment, will be reviewed comprehensively. Special attention will be given on polymeric membrane modifications by introducing antibacterial agents through different methods, such as blending, grafting, and coating.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.193-201
• /
• 1999

The object of study were the development of membrane process and the optimization of operation condition for membrane system, which was used the pre-treatment system of tap water treatment in steady of conventional process such as coagulation, sedimentation. The higher steady flux is very important factor, by a suitable pre-treatment and optimization of operating condition such as fouling control, crossflow and backwashing method, in membrane system. So, we were observed the effect of flux decline for membrane used by 4 type ultrafiltration(UF) membrane pre-treatment process, and optimized the operation condition of filtration system under various MWCO(Molecular weight cut-off), operation pressure, linear velocity and temperature to maintain higher flux. From these experiment, we were identified that UF process showed a slower flux decline rate and a higher flux recovery than microfiltration(MF) membrane. The water quality of UF permeate was better than that of MF, and was not effected pre-treatment process. In the operation condition, the rate of flux decline was diminished by a higher linear velocity and operation temperature, lower pressure.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.155-163
• /
• 2019

The roles of polypropylene (PP) beads and pH on membrane fouling and treatment efficiency were investigated in a hybrid advanced water treatment process of tubular carbon fiber membranes (ultrafiltration (UF) or microfiltration (MF)) and PP beads. The synthetic feed including humic acid and kaolin flowed inside the membrane, and the permeated contacted the PP beads fluidized in the space between the membrane and the module with UV irradiation and periodic water back-flushing. In the hybrid process of UF ($0.05{\mu}m$) and PP beads, final resistance of membrane fouling ($R_f$) after 180 min increased as PP beads increased. The turbidity treatment efficiency was the maximum at 30 g/L; however, that of dissolved organic matters (DOM) showed the highest at PP beads 50 g/L. The $R_f$ strengthened as pH of feed increased. It means that the membrane fouling could be inhibited at low alkali condition. The treatment efficiency of turbidity was almost constant independent of pH; however, that of DOM showed the maximum at pH 5. For MF ($0.1{\mu}m$), the final $R_f$ was the minimum at PP beads 40 g/L. The treatment efficiencies of turbidity and DOM were the maximum at PP beads 10 g/L.

• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.377-383
• /
• 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 Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.139-146
• /
• 2013

A process diagnosis method for membrane water treatment plant was developed using a constant flux membrane fouling model. This diagnosis method can be applied to a real-field membrane-based water treatment plant as an early alarming system for membrane fouling. The constant flux membrane fouling model was based on the simplest equation form to describe change in trans-membrane pressure (TMP) during the filtration cycle from a literature. The model was verified using a pilot-scale microfiltraton (MF) plant with two commercial MF membrane modules (72 m2 of membrane area). The predicted TMP data were produced using the model, where the modeling parameters were obtained by the least square method using the early plant data and modeling equations. The diagnosis was carried out by comparing the predicted TMP data (as baseline) and real plant data. As a result of the case study, the diagnsis method worked pretty well to predict the early points where fouling started to occur.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.499-505
• /
• 2009

Many other countries have investigated the residual sludge treatment process to save the existing water resource and produce the high suspended solid concentration sludge. There are various methods for concentrating residual sludge, but the membrane system has received the most interest for its efficiency. The objective of this study was to evaluate the application of membrane filtration system for the residual sludge treatment. The experiment equipment was composed of Lab scale Crossflow tubular membrane filtration system. Generally, crossflow operation mode demands high electric cost mainly for the pump energy. So to cut off electric cost, very low Crossflow velocity was used in this experiment. Results confirmed that suspended solid concentration of residual sludge could be concentrated to 57,000mg/L in low Crossflow velocity tubular membrane system,. This concentration can be directly injected into the dehydrator. Based on the results, we know that the Crossflow tubular membrane system should be replaced conventional residual sludge treatment system.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.181-193
• /
• 2014

Various treatment system for residuals have applied to save water resources, but most of them were not be satisfied with legal standard consistently. In this study, submerged membrane treatment system was operated to treat water treatment plant residuals and operation parameters was evaluated. Result of this experiment, high concentration organic matters contributed to high increase Transmembrane pressure(TMP) of membrane system(from 0.05 bar to 0.35 bar). And backwash process was effective to stabilize membrane system operation. After Cleaning-In-Place(CIP), permeability was recovered about 100 % from first operation condition. Inorganic matters (Fe, Mn, Al, Ca, Mg) were not effective membrane filtration performance. The quality of residual treatment was satisfied with drinking water quality standard and a treated water from that system was suitable for water reuse.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.1-23
• /
• 2012

The coupling of anaerobic biological process and membrane separation could provide excellent suspended solids removal and better biomass retention for wastewater treatment. This coupling improves the biological treatment process while allowing for the recovery of energy through biogas. This review gives a basic description of the anaerobic wastewater treatment process, summarizes the state of the art of anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs), and describes the current research trends and needs for the development of AnMBRs. The research interest on AnMBR has grown over the conventional anaerobic processes such as upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB). Studies on AnMBRs have developed different reactor configurations to enhance performances. The AnMBR performances have achieved comparable status to other high rate anaerobic reactors. AnMBR is highly suitable for application with thermophilic anaerobic process to enhance performances. Studies indicate that the applications of AnMBR are not only limited to the high strength industrial wastewater treatment, but also for the municipal wastewater treatment. In recent years, there is a significant progress in the membrane fouling studies, which is a major concern in AnMBR application.