• Korean Membrane Journal
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.31-35
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• 2003

The permeation characteristics of the wastewater containing Si fine particles were examined by ultrafiltration using the polyolefin tubular membrane module. Flux with time was due to the growth of Si cake deposited on the membrane surface and the pore plugging by fine particles. The rate of flux decline in the initial stage increased with the trans-membrane pressure. The pore blocking resistance was the dominant resistance at the initial period of filtration and the cake resistance began to dominate with the initial pore blocking resistance. The larger pores compared with the fine particles, the more the membrane pores could be blocked by the fine particles. Before and after treatment, the distribution of particle size was shifted toward to the left. Then, the average size of fine particles in the permeate was 20 nm.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.855-864
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• 2009

The main object of this work was to determine the influence of periodic chemical backwash on filtration resistance in membrane filtration system. In this work Hermia's models were used to investigate the fouling mechanisms involved in the microfiltration of $0.45{\mu}m$ filtered sewage feed. Batch microfiltration experiments were performed at transmembrane pressure 0.4 bar and different feed SCOD concentration (9~67 mgSCOD/L). The results showed that the best fit to experimental data corresponded to the intermediate blocking model followed by the standard and complete blocking model for all the experimental conditions tested. From the simulation results of filtration performance, it was found that in order to maintain sustainable operation of membrane filtration system, irreversible foulant component accumulated continuously on membrane surface and/or pore must be effectively removed. In addition, it was verified that periodic chemical backwash using NaOCl or NaOH effectively improved filtration performance of membrane.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.34-46
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• 2009

Effect of backflushing on the membrane fouling for polyethylene capillary membranes was examined by measuring the flux of $Al_2O_3$ colloidal suspensions through the cross flow microfiltration. In the comparison of with and without the application of backflushing, the hydraulic resistance to permeate flow of the suspension was less with backfluslng, but the Increasing rate in permeate resistance was higher. Regardless of backflushing, the cake filtration was dominant at the initial period of filtration with backflushing, being followed by the pore blocking. And at steady state, the fouling mechanism is almost governed by the cake filtration model. On the contrary, the pore blocking preceded the cake filtration in the initial stage of the original membrane before backflushing. And irrespective of backflushing, the ratio of cake filtration to total fouling increased, compared with that fur before backflushing. For the membrane with $0.24{\mu}m$ pore size, the permeate resistance was higher than that of $0.34{\mu}m$ pore size membrane. but the ratio of cake filtration was smaller than that of large pore membrane. In comparing the ratio of each fouling component to the total fouling for the case with backflushing pore blocking was 7.8% and cake filtration was 92.2%. for the case without backflushing, total fouling was composed of 9.6% pore blocking and 90.4% cake filtration.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.297-316
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• 2010

Membrane fouling is one of the major operational concerns of membrane processes which results in loss of productivity. This paper investigates the ultrafiltration (UF) results of synthetic oil-in-water (o/w) emulsion using flat sheets of polysulfone (PSf) membrane synthesized with four different compositions. The aim is to identify the mechanisms responsible for the observed permeate flux reduction with time for different PSf membranes. The experiments were carried out at four transmembrane pressures i.e., 68.9 kPa, 103.4 kPa, 137.9 kPa and 172.4 kPa. Three initial oil concentrations i.e., 75 $mgL^{-1}$, 100 $mgL^{-1}$ and 200 $mgL^{-1}$ were considered. The resistance-in-series (RIS) model was applied to interpret the data and on that basis, the individual resistances were evaluated. The significances of these resistances were studied in relation to parameters, namely, transmembrane pressure and initial oil concentration. The total resistance to permeate flow is found to increase with increase in both transmembrane pressure and initial oil concentration while for higher oil concentration, resistance due to concentration polarization is found to be the prevailing resistance. The applicability of the constant pressure filtration models to the experimental data was also tested to explain the blocking process. The study shows that intermediate pore blocking is the dominant mechanism at the initial period of UF while in the later period, the fouling process is found to approach cake filtration like mechanism. However, the duration of pore blocking mechanism is different for different membranes depending on their morphological and permeation properties.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1999.07a
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• pp.95-96
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• 1999

The ultrafiltration behavior of dilute colloidal solution containing Si particles has been investigated. The experiments in cross flow mode have been performed at different operating condition by using the membrane with 20 kDa cut-off. The flux decline was due to the development of membrane fouling which was a dynamic process of two distinctive stages. For the high trans-membrane pressure, the pore blocking resistance was dominant at the initial period of filtraion and was followed by the cake resistance. And for the low cross flow velocity, the membrane fouling was governed by the cake filtration model at the initial stage of filtration process. Flux jump was observed temporally during the membrane filtration of mixed feed solution.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.88-100
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• 2003

A change of filtrate flux in Taylor vortex flow filtration was investigated experimentally by rotating speed of inner cellulose ester membrane cylinder (average pore size: 1.2 ${\mu}m$), slurry concentration, and particle size. The filtrate flux was a direct proportion relation with TMP, but an inverse relation with resistances. A change of cake resistance with time was examined by rotating speed, slurry concentration, and particle size. Initial resistance increased dramatically as raising slurry concentration, and the pseudo-steady state was maintained at high resistance value. However, times to reach the pseudo-steady state did not depend on slurry concentration. The resistance was larger as smaller particle size, because possibility of pore blocking inside membrane could be higher and shear effect should be lower as smaller particle size. A model equation suggested in this study was composed of particle deposition and removal terms, and could confirm well experimental data using average values of experimental coefficients.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.91-98
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• 2006

There is a possibility of the production of the air bubbles in membrane pores due to the reduction in pressure during membrane filtration. The effect of fine air bubbles from dissolved gases on microfiltration was investigated in the submerged membrane bio-reactor (SMBR). The $R_{air}$ (air bubble resistance) was defined as the filtration resistance due to the air bubbles formed from the gasification of dissolved gases. From the results of filtration tests using pure water with changes in the dissolved oxygen concentration, the air bubbles from dissolved gases were confirmed to act as a foulant and; thus, increase the filtration resistance. The standard pore blocking and cake filtration models, SPBM and CFM, respectively, were applied to investigate the mechanism of air bubble fouling on a hollow fiber membrane. However, the application of the SPBM and CFM were limited in explaining the mechanism due to the properties of air bubble. With a simple comparison of the different filtration resistances, the $R_{air}$ portion was below 1% of the total filtration resistance during sludge filtration. Therefore, the air bubbles from dissolved gases would only be a minor foulant in the SMBR. However, under the conditions of a high gasification rate from dissolved gases, the effect of air bubble fouling should be considered in microfiltration.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.373-383
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• 2018

Fouling by solids and microorganisms is the major obstacle limiting the efficient use of membrane wastewater treatment. In our previous study, two stages microalgae/membrane filtration system was proposed to treat anaerobic digested palm oil mill effluent (AnPOME). This two stages microalgae/membrane filtration system had showed great potential for the treatment of AnPOME with high removal of COD, $NH_3-N$, $PO_4{^{3-}}$, TSS, turbidity, and colour. However, fouling behavior of the membrane in this two stages microalgae/membrane filtration system was still unknown. In this study, empirical models that describe permeate flux decline for dead-end filtration (pore blocking - complete, intermediate, and standard; and cake layer formation) presented by Hermia were used to fit the experimental results in identifying the fouling mechanism under different experimental conditions. Both centrifuged and non-centrifuged samples were taken from the medium with 3 days RT intervals, from day 0 to day 12 to study their influence on fouling mechanisms described by Hermia for ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), and reverse osmosis (RO) filtration mode. Besides, a more detailed study on the use of resistance-in-series model for deadend filtration was done to investigate the fouling mechanisms involved in membrane filtration of AnPOME collected after microalgae treatment. The results showed that fouling of UF and NF membrane was mainly caused by cake layer formation and it was also supported by the analysis for resistance-in-series model. Whereas, fouling of RO membrane was dominated by concentration polarization.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.36-42
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• 1999

Permeation behavior of the semiconductor rinsing wastewater contammg Si particles was examined by ultrafiltration using the polyolefin tubular membrane. Flux decline with time was due to the growth of Si cake deposited on the membrane surface and the pore plugging by Si particles. Cake filtration from the cross flow application is compared to the combination of pore blocking and cake filtration from the dead-end application. The cake resistance is 3.16 x $10^{12}$ -4.34 X $\times$$10^{12}$ $m^{-1}$ for the cross flow and 6.6 x $\times$$10^{12}$ -12.19 X $\times$$10^{12}$ $\times$$m^{-1}$for the dead-end flow, respectively. At the initial stage of operation, permeation flux of cross flow type was 1.7 time higher than that of the dead end flow type. Permeation flux of cross flow was about 42 e 1m2 hr and the rejection rate of Si particles was about 96 %. The average particle size of Si particle in the permeate was 20 nm.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.337-353
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• 2017

Membrane fouling at different solids retention times (SRT) (7, 12 and 20 days) was studied under well-controlled conditions in a laboratory-scale aerobic submerged membrane bioreactor under constant biomass concentration using a synthetic high strength wastewater. An increase in SRT was found to improve membrane performance and this correlated to changes in the total production of bound extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), and the composition and properties of bound EPS using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and floc sizes. A larger amount of total bound EPS was found at the lowest SRT (7 days) tested but the ratio of proteins (PN) to carbohydrates (CH) in bound EPS increased with an increase in SRT. Similarly, the quantity of soluble microbial products (SMP) decreased with an increase in SRT and the SMP PN/CH ratio increased with an increase in SRT. SMP concentrations positively correlated to the percentage of membrane pore blocking resistance. The quantity of total bound EPS and total SMP positively corresponded to the membrane fouling rate, while the PN/CH ratio in the bound EPS and SMP negatively correlated to the membrane fouling rate. The results show that both the quantity and composition of bound EPS and SMP and floc sizes are important in controlling membrane fouling.