• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.259-290
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• 2022

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), due to their excellent physical, chemical and mechanical properties and their ability to prepare new membranes with attractive properties, have found applications in water and wastewater technology. CNT functionalization, which involves the introduction of different types of functional groups into pure CNTs, improves the capabilities of CNT membranes for water and wastewater treatment. It turns out that CNT-based membranes have many advantages, including enhanced water permeability, high selectivity and anti-fouling properties. However, their full-scale application is still limited by their high cost. With their tremendous separation efficiency, low biofouling potential and ultra-high water flux, CNT membranes have the potential to be a leading technology in water treatment in the future, especially in desalination.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.147-170
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• 2014

This paper focuses on the study of the most recent ultra-filtration techniques, based on porous polymer membranes, used for the treatment of wastewater from oil, mine and hydrometallurgical industries. The performance of porous membranes used in separation and recovery of oil and heavy metals from wastewater, was evaluated by the polymer composition and by the membrane characteristics, as it follows: hydrophobicity or hydrophilicity, porosity, carrier (composition and concentration), selectivity, fouling, durability, separation efficiency and operating conditions. The oil/water efficient separation was observed on ultra-filtration (UF) techniques, with porous membranes, whereas heavy metals recovery from wastewater was observed using porous membranes with carrier. It can be concluded, that in the ultra-filtration wastewater treatments, a hybrid system, with porous polymer membranes with or without carrier, can be used for these two applications: oil/water separation and heavy metals recovery.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.193-207
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• 2016

Boron is one of the most problematic inorganic pollutants and is difficult to remove in water. Strict standards have been imposed for boron content in water because of their high toxicity at high concentrations. Technologies using membrane processes such as reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) have increasingly been employed in many industrial sectors. In this work, removal of boron from model water solutions was investigated using polyamide reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes. RO-AG, RO-SG, NF-90 and NF-HL membranes were used to reduce the boron from model water at different operational conditions. To understand the boron separation properties a characterization of the four membranes was performed by determining the pure water permeability, surface charge and molecular weight cut-off. Thereafter, the effect of feed pressure, concentration, ionic strength, nature of ions in solution and pH on the rejection of boron were studied. The rejection of boron can reach up to 90% for the three membranes AG, SG and NF-90 at pH = 11. The Spiegler-Kedem model was applied to experimental results to determine the reflection coefficient of the membrane ${\sigma}$ and the solute permeability $P_s$.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.121-136
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• 2011

A bench-scale test has recently been proposed as a predictive tool to minimize the scope of pilot-scale testing or to optimize the operation of full-scale membrane filtration systems. Consequently, a bench-scale testing unit was developed for this purpose and systematically evaluated in this study. This unit was capable of accommodating commercially available, low pressure, hollow fiber (LPHF) membranes with various configurations for testing under conditions comparable to real-world applications. Reproducibility of this unit in assessing membrane fouling and microbial removal efficiency of LPHF membranes was tested and statistically comparable results were obtained. This unit serves as a useful apparatus for academic researchers and utilities to evaluate the performance of LPHF membranes used for water treatment.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1997.06a
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• pp.21-35
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• 1997

As environmental regulations become more stringent, water, used either as drinking water or as industrial process water, becomes increasingly better in its quality. As a result, an increasingly more advanced water treatment technology is required. It is believed that membrane technology will be able to satisfy such a requirement. The heart of the membrane technology is membrane. The advancement in water treatment technology using membranes, therefore, depends on the development of novel membranes which are superior in performance to the currently available membranes. In this paper, a brief review will be made how the recent progress in surface science, such as surface modification and surface characterization, has aided to improve the performance of the membranes used for water treatment. Some suggestions will also be made regarding the future direction of the research in this area.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2024

Recently, separation membranes have been applied to fields such as water supply, sewage treatment, gray water reuse, and air pollution control. Chemical cleaning technology is attracting attention among the methods of reusing these expensive separation membranes. It was found that the separation membrane could be regenerated using chemical cleaning. Specifically, it was found that the use time of the separation membranes regenerated by chemical cleaning was sustainable for more than 1,700 hours. Additionally, it was found that the flux recovery ratio after chemical cleaning was maintained at least 60%. In addition, the flux recovery ratio of HYDREX 4710, an organic membrane cleaner, and 4703, an inorganic membrane cleaner, was 76% and 62%, respectively, showing the highest flux recovery ratio among the chemicals used. Considering that the target raw water of this study is biological secondary treatment water, it was suggested that chemical cleaning could be actively used to regenerate separation membranes in future water treatment.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.107-114
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• 2023

Graphene oxide (GO) membranes have attracted extensive attention in water treatment and related fields. However, GO films are unstable and have low permeability, which have hindered their further development. In this paper, a simple and effective method was used in which GO and single-layer graphene (GN) were mixed, and the layer spacing was effectively controlled by accurately controlling the ratio of GO to GN. GO-GN composite membranes have excellent stability, salt rejection (95.4%), and water flux (26 L m^-2 h^-1 bar^-1). This unique design structure can be used for precise and effective regulation of the layer spacing in GO, improving the rejection rate, and increasing water flux via the enhancement of low-friction capillary action. The rational development and use of this unique composite membrane provides a reference for the water treatment field.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.69-77
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• 2018

The use of membrane as an innovative technology for water treatment process has now widely been accepted and adopted to replace the conventional water treatment process in increasing fresh water production for various domestic and industrial purposes. In this study, ultrafiltration (UF) membranes with different formulation were fabricated via phase inversion method. The membranes were fabricated by varying the polymer concentration (16 wt%, 18 wt%, 20 wt%, and 21 wt%). A series of tests, such as field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), pore size and porosity, contact angle, and zeta potential were performed to characterize the membranes. The membrane performance in terms of permeation flux and rejection were evaluated using a laboratory bench-scale test unit with mine water, lake water and tube well as model feed solution. Long hour filtration study of the membranes provides the information on its fouling property. Few pore blocking mechanism models were proposed to examine the behaviour of flux reduction and to estimate the fouling parameters based on different degree of fouling. 21 wt% PVDF membrane with smaller membrane pore size showed an excellent performance for surface water treatment in which the treated water complied with NWQS class II standard.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.277-296
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• 2016

The aim of this research was to investigate the ability of nanofiltration (NF) and ultrafiltration (UF) membranes as a filtration unit for groundwater treatment for drinking water resources. Commercial membranes denoted as TS40, TFC-SR3 and GHSP were used to study the performance based on rejections and fluxes. The investigation has been conducted using natural groundwater obtained from a deep tube well with initial concentration of iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) at 7.15 mg/L and 0.87 mg/L, respectively. Experimental results showed that NF membranes exhibited higher fluxes than UF membrane with pure water permeability at 4.68, 3.99 and $3.15L.m^{-2}.h^{-1}.bar^{-1}$, respectively. For metal rejection, these membranes have performed higher removal on Fe with TS40, TFC-SR3 and GHSP membranes having more than 82%, 92% and 86% respectively. Whereas, removal on Mn only achieved up to 60%, 80% and 30%, for TS40, TFC-SR3 and GHSP membranes respectively. In order to achieve drinking water standard, the membranes were efficient in removing Fe ion at 1 and 2 bar in contrast with Mn ion at 4 and 5 bar. Higher rejection of Fe and Mn were achieved when pH of feed solution was increased to more than 7 as TFC-SR3 membrane was negatively charged in basic solution. This effect could be attributed to the electrostatic effect interaction between membrane material and rejected ions. In conclusion, this study proved that NF membrane especially the TFC-SR3 membrane successfully treated local groundwater sources for public drinking water supply in line with the WHO standard.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.139-152
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• 2024

Mixed matrix membranes have gained significant recognition in the wastewater treatment industry for their effectiveness in removing dyes, proteins, and heavy metals from water sources. Researchers have developed an innovative technique to enhance properties of these membranes by incorporating amine-functionalized carbon nanotubes into the polymer matrix. This approach introduces amine functional groups onto the membrane surface, which are then modified with trimesoyl chloride and cyanuric chloride. The modified membranes are characterized by XPS to confirm successful bonding of amines with the trimesoyl chloride and cyanuric chloride. The surface charge of the modified membrane also plays a role in the modification process; the membrane modified with trimesoyl chloride has a negative surface charge, while the one modified with cyanuric chloride has a more positive charge. At the same acidic pH, the positive or negative charge of the mixed matrix membranes assists in enhancing the rejection of heavy metals. This results in improved antifouling properties for both modified membranes. The heavy metal rejection for all modified membranes is higher than for unmodified membranes, due to both adsorption and complexation abilities of the functional groups on the membrane surface with heavy metal ions. As the membrane surface functionalities increase through modification, the separation due to complexation also increases. The bulk morphology of the membrane remains unchanged, while roughness slightly increases due to the surface treatment.