• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2021

This study optimized the chemical cleaning process of discarded RO membranes for reuse in less demanding separation processes. The effect of physicochemical parameters, including the temperature, cleaning time, pH of the cleaning solution, and addition of additives, on the cleaning process was investigated. The membrane performance was evaluated by testing the flux recovery rate and salt rejection before and after the cleaning process. High temperatures (45-50 ℃) resulted in a better flux recovery rate of 71% with more than 80% salt rejection. Equal time for acid and base cleaning 3-3 h presented a 72.43% flux recovery rate with salt rejection above 85%. During acid and base cleaning, the best results were achieved at pH values of 3.0 and 12.0, respectively. Moreover, 0.05% concentration of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid presented 72.3% flux recovery, while 69.2% flux was achieved using sodium dodecyl sulfate with a concentration of 0.5%; both showed >80% salt rejection, indicating no damage to the active layer of the membrane. Conversely, 0.5% concentration of sodium percarbonate showed 83.1% flux recovery and 0.005% concentration of sodium hypochlorite presented 85.2% flux recovery, while a high concentration of these chemicals resulted in oxidation of the membrane that caused a reduction in salt rejection.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.69-81
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• 2013

The pH-dependent inter-conversion of the three free chlorine species ($Cl_2$, HOCl, OCl-) present in the aqueous hypochlorite solution was theoretically investigated. Each species was found overwhelmingly present in a characteristic pH range. Hypochlorite treatment of the polyamide membrane was carried out over these pH ranges and various membrane responses were observed. As pH is less than 8, membrane tends to be N-chlorinated by $Cl_2$ and HOCl, and N-chlorinated membrane showed reduced water permeance and salt rejection. As pH rises to 10-12, $OCl^-$ appears to be the dominating chlorine species. Membrane hydrolysis was found to well interpret the improved water permeance and salt rejection. When the pH is between 8-10, both N-chlorination and hydrolysis contribute to the response of the membrane, and the treated membrane showed improved salt rejection but reduced water permeation. Excessive hydrolysis occurred while the membrane was treated at pH 13 for the much stronger alkalinity.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.590-595
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• 2008

The pressure driven membrane process has been a breakthrough in the removal of pollutants from drinking water. These experiments examined the removal of chlorophenol compounds from water using low pressure membranes. The removal performance of the membranes was based primarily on size exclusion. Apart from size exclusion, the polarity and pKa of the compounds also influences the membrane performance. The molecular size and dipole moments of the respective molecules were calculated using a quantum chemical method. The rejection of pollutants also followed the same trend as salt rejection by the membranes.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.49-60
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• 2010

In this study, response surface methodology (RSM) was performed in NF membrane process to evaluate the separation efficiency of membrane in the removal of salt and reactive dye by varying different variables such as pressure, temperature, pH, dye concentration and salt concentration. The significant level of both the main effects and the interaction were observed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) approach. Based on the statistical analysis, the results have provided valuable information on the relationship between these variables and the performances of membrane. The rejection of salt was found to be greatly influenced by pressure, pH and salt concentration whereas the dye rejection was relatively constant in between 96.22 and 99.43% regardless of the changes in the variables. The water flux on the other hand was found to be affected by the pressure and salt concentration. It is also found that the model predictions were in good agreement with the experimental data, indicating the validity of these models in predicting membrane performances prior to the real filtration process.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.93-101
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• 1986

Microporous glasses were prepared from the 50 $SiO_2-44$ $B_2O_3-6$ $Na_2O$(wt%) parent glass by the phase eparation technique and were characterized by SEM, BET, and Gas Adsorption methods to investigate the possiblity of their use as salt-rejection membranes for reverse osmosis. The conditions of the phase separation for the possible glass membranes were optimized for the given parent glass. The temperature and duration of heat-treatment were desired to be lower(853K) and shorter (1/2~1 hr) respectively. The specific surface areas of porous glasses prepared in this study were about 80~120$m^2$/g and their pore size distribution had a unimodal shape(peak pore radius less than 15$\AA$) It was suggested that the porous glass obtained in this work could be effective for salt-rejection in point of pore size distributions but the way to increase its surface area for the high flux must be studied.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.553-562
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• 2017

In the present study, the water desalination across the penta-graphene has been explored by using molecular dynamics simulation. The penta-graphene, a new carbon allotrope, introduced theoretically in 2015. It was shown that this carbon nanostructure is slightly stiffer against buckling in comparison with the graphene nanoribbons. The effect of radius of curvature (ROC) of the membrane, pore size, and applied pressure, on water flow rate, and salt rejection is investigated. It is shown that salt rejection, and the shape of the oxygen density distribution inside the pore can be influenced by the ROC of membrane. Finally, it is shown that the ROC, and pore size of 2D membranes, play an important role in the salt rejection.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.171-179
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• 2010

The transport of selected salts of sulphuric acid (cobalt, copper, iron(II), manganese, nickel and zinc sulphate) through an anion-exchange membrane Neosepta-AFN was investigated in a counter-current continuous dialyzer at various salt concentrations and volumetric liquid flow rates. The basic transport characteristics - the rejection coefficient of salt and the permeability of the membrane - were calculated from measurements at steady state. The salt concentration in model mixtures was changed in the limits from 0.1 to 1.0 kmol $m^{-3}$ and the volumetric liquid flow rate of the inlet streams was in the limits from $8{\times}10^{-9}$ to $24{\times}10^{-9}m^3\;s^{-1}$. Under the experimental conditions given, the rejection coefficient of salts tested was in the range from 65% to 94%. The lowest values were obtained for iron(II) sulphate, while the highest for copper sulphate. The maximum rejection of salt was reached at the highest volumetric liquid flow rate and the highest salt concentration in the feed. The permeability ($P_A$) of the Neosepta-AFN membrane for the individual salts was in the range from $0.49{\times}10^{-7}m\;s^{-1}$ to $1.8{\times}10^{-7}m\;s^{-1}$ and it can be described by the following series: $P_{FeSO_4}$ < $P_{NiSO_4}$ < $P_{ZnSO_4}$ < $P_{CoSO_4}$ < $P_{MnSO_4}$ < $P_{CuSO_4}$. The permeability of the membrane was strongly affected by the salt concentration in the feed - it decreased with an increasing salt concentration.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.221-231
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• 2018

A new procedure to produce poly(vinylidene fluoride)/boron nitride hybrid membrane is presented for application in membrane distillation (MD) process. The influence of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) incorporation on the performance of the polymeric membranes is studied through the present investigation. For this aim, h-BN nanopowders were successfully synthesized using the simple chemical vapor deposition (CVD) route and subsequent solvent treatments. The resulting h-BN nanosheets were blended with poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) solution. Then, the prepared composite solution was subjected to phase inversion process to obtain PVDF/h-BN hybrid membranes. Various examinations such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), wettability, permeation flux, mechanical strength and liquid entry pressure (LEP) measurements are performed to evaluate the prepared membrane. Moreover, Air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) experiments were carried out to investigate the salt rejection performance and the durability of membranes. The results show that our hybrid PVDF/h-BN membrane presents higher water permeation flux (${\sim}18kg/m^2h$) compared to pristine PVDF membrane. In addition, the experimental data confirms that the prepared nanocomposite membrane is hydrophobic (water contact angle: ${\sim}103^{\circ}$), has a porous skin layer (>85%), as well competitive fouling resistance and operational durability. Furthermore, the total salt rejection efficiency was obtained for PVDF/h-BN membrane. The results prove that the novel PVDF/h-BN membrane can be easily synthesized and applied in MD process for salt rejection purposes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.413-420
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• 2019

Pretreatment system of desalination process using seawater reverse osmosis(SWRO) membrane is the most critical step in order to prevent membrane fouling. One of the methods is coagulation-UF membrane process. Coagulation-UF membrane systems have been shown to be very efficient in removing turbidity and non-soluble and colloidal organics contained in the source water for SWRO pretreatment. Ferric salt coagulants are commonly applied in coagulation-UF process for pretreatment of SWRO process. But aluminum salts have not been applied in coagulation-UF pretreatment of SWRO process due to the SWRO membrane fouling by residual aluminum. This study was carried out to see the effect of residual matal salt on SWRO membrane followed by coagulation-UF pretreatment process. Experimental results showed that increased residual aluminum salts by coagulation-UF pretreatment process by using alum lead to the decreased SWRO membrane salt rejection and flux. As the salt rejection and flux of SWRO membrane decreased, the concentration of silica and residual aluminum decreased. However, when adjusting coagulation pH for coagulation-UF pretreatment process, the residual aluminum salt concentration was decreased and SWRO membrane flux was increased.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.25-34
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• 2012

Carboxylated polysulfone (CPS), poly (1,4-phenylene ether ethersulfone) (PPEES), membranes were prepared and used for the separation of NaCl and $CaCl_2$, in efficient way with less energy consumption. In this work, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes were employed to the salt rejection behavior of the different salt solutions. The influence of applied pressure (1-12 bar), on the membrane performance was assessed. In CM series of membranes, $CM_1$ showed maximum of 97% water uptake and 36% water swelling, whereas, $CM_4$ showed 75% water uptake and 28% water swelling. In RCM series, $RCM_1$ showed 85% water uptake and 32% water swelling whereas, in $RCM_4$ it was 68% for water uptake and 20% for water swelling. Conclusively reverse osmosis membranes gave better rejection whereas nanofiltration membrane showed enhanced flux. CM1 showed 58% of rejection with 12 L/($m^2$ h) flux and $RCM_1$ showed 55% of rejection with 15 L/($m^2$ h) flux for 0.1 wt.% NaCl solution. Whereas, in 0.1 wt.% $CaCl_2$ solution, membrane $CM_1$ showed 78% of rejection with 12 L/($m^2$ h) flux and $RCM_1$ showed 63% rejection with flux of 9 L/($m^2$ h).