• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.291-312
• /
• 2017

Seawater desalination is currently considered to be one of the primary technologies to resolve the global water scarcity problem. A basic understanding of membrane filtration phenomena is significant not only for further technological development but also for integrated design, optimal control, and long-term maintenance. In this vein, the present work reviews the major transport and filtration models, specifically related to reverse osmosis phenomena, provides theoretical insights based on statistical mechanics, and discusses model-based physical meanings as related to their practical implications.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.479-482
• /
• 2012

Membrane process has been one of the widely applied wastewater treatment options, especially in field. However, one of the tricky issues in the process is to treat concentrates generated from reverse osmosis (RO) system in a manner of saving cost with maximum efficiency for treating a wide range of contaminants. Stimulated with the challenging issues, we have conducted a series of experimental studies in the evaluation for removing organics and nutrients using activated carbon. Results indicated that while powdered activated carbon (PAC) efficiently removed organics and the extent of removal was proportional to the PAC dosage, little removal of nitrogen and phosphorus was observed despite increasing the PAC dose. Interestingly, applying PAC was superior in removing organics than using granular activated carbon (GAC). These results suggest smaller particle size with higher surface area could provide greater chemical reactivity in removing organics.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.1-14
• /
• 2017

At high nitrate concentrations, water must be treated to meet regulated concentrations because it results in threat to human health and eutrophication of natural water. However, it is almost impossible to remove nitrate by conventional water treatment methods such as coagulation, filtration and precipitation, due to its high water solubility. Therefore, other technologies including adsorption, ion exchange, reverse osmosis, denitrification, and electrodialysis are required to effectively remove nitrate. Each of these technologies has their own strengths and drawbacks and their feasibility is weighted against factors such as cost, water quality improvement, residuals handling, and pre-treatment requirements. An adsorption technique is the most popular and common process because of its cost effectiveness, ease of operation, and simplicity of design. Surface modifications of adsorbents have been enhanced their adsorption of nitrate. The nitrate-selective membrane process of electrodialysis reversal and reverse osmosis have proven over time and at many locations to be highly effective in removing nitrate contaminating problems in aqueous solutions. Both electrodiaysis and reverse osmosis methods generate highly concentrated wastes and need careful consideration with respect to disposal.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.459-469
• /
• 2016

Gas hydrate desalination process is based on a liquid to solid (Gas Hydrate, GH) phase change followed by a physical process to separate the GH from the remaining salty water. The GH based desalination process show 60.5-90% of salt rejection, post treatment like reverse osmosis (RO) process is needed to finally meet the product water quality. In this study, the energy consumption of the GH and RO hybrid system was investigated. The energy consumption of the GH process is based on the cooling and heating of seawater and the heat of GH formation reaction while RO energy consumption is calculated using the product of pressure and flow rate of high pressure pumps used in the process. The relation between minimum energy consumption of RO process and RO recovery depending on GH salt rejection, and (2) energy consumption of electric based GH process can be calculated from the simulation. As a result, energy consumption of GH-RO hybrid system and conventional seawater RO process (with/without enregy recovery device) is compared. Since the energy consumption of GH process is too high, other solution used seawater heat and heat exchanger instead of electric energy is suggested.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.20 no.5
• /
• pp.447-451
• /
• 2004

The various pretreatment processes were evaluated to remove organic pollutants of weathered oil contaminated seawater(WOCS) for reverse osmosis desalination process, Biodegradation, coagulation, ultrafiltration, advanced oxidation processes and granular activated carbon filtration were used to evaluate the potential of organic pollutants removal in WOCS. Dissolved Organic Carbon(DOC) was almost not removed by biodegradation in WOCS. DOC was removed by 25% and 10% with the addition of $FeCl_3$ and PAC in WOCS, respectively. The removal efficiency using ultrafiltration(WOCS 500) was about 20% of DOC and 40% of $E_{260}$, respectively. In AOP application of WOCS, the removal of organic materials was improved up to 60% by the combination of $UV/O_3$ compared to UV process. However, 98% of DOC in woes could be removed by granular activated carbon filtration. It is revealed that activated carbon filtration is the best process for the pretratment of DOC removal.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.27 no.5
• /
• pp.555-560
• /
• 2013

A cost analysis method for pretreament processes of a large scale seawater desalination plant was considered using a cost estimation model, WaTER (Water Treatment Estimation Routine). This model is based on cost functions of U.S. EPA to conduct economic analysis of water treatment facilities. A virtual seawater desalination plant which has pretreatment production capacity of $100,000m^3$ per day was chosen as a model plant. Dual media filtration and microfiltration systems were compared as pretreatment process, and the following reverse osmosis process was modeled. As a result, microfiltration showed a price competitiveness in condition of operating with reverse osmosis process by reducing the loads of water treatment and membrane cleaning despite it's high annual cost.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.635-643
• /
• 2016

Gas hydrate (GH)-based desalination process have a potential as a novel unit desalination process. GHs are nonstoichiometric crystalline inclusion compounds formed at low temperature and a high pressure condition by water and a number of guest gas molecules. After formation, pure GHs are separated from the remaining concentrated seawater and they are dissociated into guest gas and pure water in a low temperature and a high pressure condition. The condition of GH formation is different depending on the type of guest gas. This is the reason why the guest gas is a key to success of GH desalination process. The salt rejection of GH based desalination process appeared 60.5-93%, post treatment process is needed to finally meet the product water quality. This study adopted reverse osmosis (RO) as a post treatment. However, the test about gas rejection by RO process have to be performed because the guest gas will be dissolved in a GH product (RO feed). In this research, removal potential of dissolved gas by RO process is performed using lab-scale RO system and GC/MS analysis. The relation between RO membrane characteristics and gas removal rate were analyzed based on the GC/MS measurement.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
• /
• 2003.05a
• /
• pp.205-209
• /
• 2003

The various pretreatment processes were evaluated for removal of oil pollutants with weathered oil contaminated seawater in a reverse osmosis desalination process. Weathered oil contaminated seawater was made by biodegradation and photooxidation with oil containing seawater. Coagulation, ultrafiltration, advanced oxidation processes and granular activated carbon filtration was used with pretreatment for dissolved organic carbon. Crude oil was removed but. weathered oil contaminated seawater was not removed by biodegradation and coagulation. DOC and E260 was removed with about 20 % and 40 % by membrane filter of cut off molecular weight 500. So, the most of dissolved organic carbon in weathered oil contaminated seawater was revealed that molecular weight was lower than 500. It is difficult to remove DOC in weathered oil contaminated seawater by advanced oxidation processes treatment, but, E260 was removed more high. However, DOC in weathered oil contaminated seawater was easily adsorbed to GAC. It is revealed that DOC was removed by adsorption.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.10 no.6
• /
• pp.417-429
• /
• 2019

Poly Sulfone nanofibers were electrospun to fabricate membranes of different characteristics. To fabricate the fiber mats, polymer concentration, flowrate, and current density were determined as the most influencing factors affecting the overall performance of the membranes and studied through Response Surface Methodology. The Box-Behnken Design method (three factors at three levels) was used to design, analyze, and optimize the parameters to achieve the best possible performance of the electrospun membranes in forward osmosis process. Also, internal concentration polarization that characterizes the efficiency of the forward osmosis membranes was determined to better assess the overall performance of the fabricated electrospun membranes. Water flux to reverse salt flux was considered as the main response to assess the performance of the membranes. As confirmed experimentally, best membrane performance with the minimal structural parameter value could be achieved when predicted optimal values were used to fabricate the membranes through electrospinning process.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.521-526
• /
• 2006

A membrane bioreactor (MBR) is an effective tool for wastewater treatment with recycling. MBR process has several advantages over conventional activated sludge process (ASP); reliability, compactness, and quality of treated water. The resulting high-quality and disinfected effluents suggest that MBR process can be suitable for the reused and recycling of wastewater. An anoxic/oxic (A/O) type MBR was applied to simultaneous removal of organics and nutrients in sewage. At first, the efficiency of submerged MBR process was investigated using a hollow fiber microfiltration membrane with a constant flux of $10.2L/m^2{\cdot}h$ at each solids retention time (SRT). Results showed that protein/carbohydrate (P/C) ratio increased and total extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) remained constant with SRT increased. Secondly, A/O type MBR with a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane was employed to treat the municipal wastewater. The performance of A/O type MBR-RO process is better for the treatment of organics and nutrients than ASP-MF-RO process in terms of consistent effluents quality.