• Membrane Journal
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.236-246
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• 2011

In this study, we used prepared a cylindrical module consisting 100 hollow fibers of commercialized (hydrophobic) polyethylene membrane of $0.4{\mu}m$ pore size and systematically studied performance of direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) and sweep gas membrane distillation (SGMD) in terms of variation of permeate flux and salt rejection with respect to temperature drop across the membrane, salt concentrations in feed, and flow rates of cooling water and sweep gas. SGMD was regarded as DCMD with a sweep gas layer between permeate-side membrane surface and cooling water. Sweep gas flow decreases the permeate flux from that of DCMD by providing an additional gas-layer resistance. We compared DCMD and SGMD performance by using mass balance with a fitting parameter (${\omega}$), indicating fraction of permeate flow rate.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.63-74
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• 2011

A spiral wound nanofiltration (NF) membrane (GE Osmonics, DK 4040F) was used to remove pesticides from water. Several solutions of single pesticides and their mixtures were prepared. The pesticides initial concentration ranged from ca. 50 ng/L (single pesticide) to ca. 700 ng/L (as sum of 14 pesticides) and progressively increased with time since the NF experiments were carried out in a concentration mode up to a Volume Concentration Ratio, VCR = 10. Permeate flux and pesticides retention were evaluated as a function of the Volume Concentration Ratio. The permeate flux did not practically change by varying VCR. Pesticide retention was found to be around 97-98% both in the cases of single pesticide solutions and different mixtures of pollutants, and was not affected by the VCR. Pesticides concentration in permeate samples was found to be lower than the maximum concentration level fixed in European directive.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.248-253
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• 2014

Air Gap Membrane Distillation (AGMD) is one of several technologies that can be used to solve problems fresh water availability. AGMD exhibits several advantages, including low conductive heat loss and higher thermal efficiency, due to the presence of an air gap between the membrane and condensation wall. A previous study by Bhardwaj found that the condensation surface properties (materials and contact angle) affected the total collected fresh water in the solar distillation process. However, the process condition differences between solar distillation and AGMD might result in different condensation phenomena. In contrast, N. Miljkovic showed that a hydrophobic surface has higher condensation heat transfer. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, there is no study that investigates the effect of condensation surface properties in AGMD to overall process performance (i.e. flux and thermal efficiency). Thus, in this study, we treated the AGMD condensation surface to make it hydrophobic or hydrophilic. The condensation surface could be made hydrophilic by immersing and boiling plate in deionized (DI) water, which caused the formation of hydrophilic aluminum hydroxide (AlOOH) nanostructures. Afterwards, the treated plate was coated using hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) through plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). The result indicated that condensation surface properties do not affect the permeate flux or thermal efficiency significantly. In general, the permeate flux and thermal efficiency for the treated plates were lower than those of the non-treated plate (pristine). However, at a 1 mm and 3 mm air gap, the treated plate outperformed the non-treated plate (pristine) in terms of permeate flux. Therefore, although surface wettability effect was not significant, it still provided a little influence.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.400-408
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• 2014

This study is to evaluate the performance of draw solutions in forward osmosis desalination using fertilizer as draw solution. Considering osmotic pressure, solubility, and pH, $NH_4NO_3$, $NH_4H_2PO_4$, $(NH_4)_2HPO_4$, KCl, $KNO_3$, and $KHCO_3$ were screened from a comprehensive lists of fertilizer. Their performance were evaluated in terms of pure water permeate flux, reverse solute flux, and specific reverse solute flux for nitrogen and phosphorus. KCl showed the highest pure water permeate flux among the selected fertilizers while $(NH_4)_2HPO_4$ draw solution had the lowest flux. $NH_4H_2PO_4$ showed the lowest reverse solute flux and specific reverse solute flux for nitrogen followed by $(NH_4)_2HPO_4$, $KNO_3$, and $NH_4NO_3$. Although the pure water permeate flux of $NH_4H_2PO_4$ is lower than the other draw solutions, because it contains both nitrogen and phosphorus, and have the lowest reverse solute flux and specific reverse solute flux, it is a promising candidate as draw solution for forward osmosis desalination.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.10-18
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• 2004

In this work, Aqueous sericin solution was prepared by degumming process with electrolytic reduction water. Then, the microfiltration and ultrafiltration systems were applied to the concentration of aqueous sericin solution. The objective of this study was to select the optimum operating condition among the different pressure. The permeate flux and rejection ratio were observed with time, pressure, flow rate and concentration. and, the wastewater and permeated water quality values such as pH, BOD, COD, and NH levels were measured. In order to see the influence of electrolytic reduction water, the flux of pure water and electrolytic reduction water by PVDF22(MF) and PS100(UF) membrane was measured. In microfiltration system, the relative flux reduction decreased rapidly to 0.02 in the 30min, as the concentration polarization and gel layer formation were increased. and then the sericin concentration rejection ratio was 40%. In ultrafiltration system, the permeate flux decreased with time and concentration, and increased with the operating pressure and flow rate. Optimal condition in PS100 membrane system for sericin concentration was operating pressure 1.464kgf/$cm^24, operating flow rate $7\ell/min at\; 40^{\circ}C$. At that time, sericin concentration rejection ratio was 83% respectably. The sericin solution was concentrated from 0.1wt% solution to 0.2 wt % solution during about 2 hrs by the UF filteration membrane system.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.113-123
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• 2017

This study investigated effects of physical and chemical cleaning methods on the initial flux recovery of fouled membrane in membrane distillation process. A laboratory scale direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) experiment was performed to treat digested livestock wastewater with 3.89 mg/L suspended solids, 874.7 mg/L COD, 543.7 mg/L nitrogen, 15.6 mg/L total phosphorus, and pH of 8.6. A hydrophobic PVDF membrane with an average pore size of $0.22{\mu}m$ and a porosity of 75 % was installed inside a direct contact type membrane distillation module. The temperature difference between feed and permeate side was maintained at $40^{\circ}C$ with the feed and permeate stream velocity of 0.18 m/s. The results showed that the permeate flux decreased from $22.1L{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}hr^{-1}$ to $19.0L{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}hr^{-1}$ after 75 hours of distillation. The fouled membrane was cleaned first by physical flushing and consecutively by chemicals with NaOCl and citric acid. After the physical cleaning the flux was recovered to 92 % as compared with the initial clean water flux of the virgin membrane. Then 94 % of the flux was recovered after cleaning by 2,000 ppm NaOCl for 90 minutes and finally 97 % of flux recovered after 3 % citric acid for 90 minutes. SEM-EDS and FT-IR analysis results presented that the foulants on the membrane surface were removed effectively after each cleaning step. The contact angle measurement showed that the hydrophobicity of the membrane surface was also restored gradually after each cleaning step to reach nearly the same hydrophobicity level as the virgin membrane.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.753-761
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• 2005

In this study, pretreatment of organic matters with $MIEX^{(R)}$ was evaluated using bench-scale experimental procedures on four organic matters to determine its effect on subsequent UF membrane filtration. For comparison, coagulation process was also used as a pretreatment of UF membrane filtration. Moreover, the membrane fouling potential was identified using different fractions and molecular weights of organic matters. From the removal property of MW organic matters by coagulation process for the sample water NOM and AOM, the removal efficiency of high MW organic matters were much higher than those of low MW organic matters. It was shown that the removal efficiency of high MW organic matter more than 10 kDa was lower than that of low MW organic matter for $MIEX^{(R)}$ process. For the change of permeate flux by the pretreatment process, $MIEX^{(R)}$+UF process showed high removal efficiency of organic matter as compared with coagulation-UF processes, but high reduction rate of permeate flux was presented through the reduction of removal efficiency of high MW organic matter. From sequential filtration test results in order to examine the effect of MW of organic matter on membrane fouling, it was found that the membrane foulant was occurred by high MW organic matter, and the DOC of organic matter less than 0.5 mg/L was working as the membrane foulant. In the case of sample water composed of low MW organic matter less than 10 kDa, since the low MW organic matter less than 10 kDa has high removal efficiency by $MIEX^{(R)}$, low reduction rate of permeate flux is obtained as compared with coagulation-UF processes. In summary, it is required to conduct the research on physical/chemical characteristic of original water before pretreatment process of membrane process is selected, and a pertinent pre-treatment process should be employed based on the physical/chemical characteristic of original water.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.26-34
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• 2008

In this study, periodic water-back-flushing using permeate water was performed to minimize membrane fouling and to enhance permeate flux in advanced water treatment system by ceramic microfiltration. We investigated effect of water-back-flushing period (FT) and time (BT), and tried to find the optimal operating conditions. BT was fixed at 3 sec and FT was changed in $30{\sim}120$ sec to inspect effect of FT. Also, FT was fixed at 120 sec and BT was changed as $3{\sim}12$ sec at experiment of BT effect. At both two experiments, TMP was fixed at 1.52 bar, water-back-flushing pressure at 0.98 bar, feed flow rate at 0.5 L/min, and feed water temperature at $20^{\circ}C$. As the result, optimal FT was 30 sec at fixed BT 3 sec in our experimental range. It means that the more frequent back-flushing was the more effective to reduce membrane fouling. However, there were not large effects of FT due to a short BT. Then, increasing BT at fixed FT 120 sec could decrease resistance of membrane fouling ($R_f$) and increase permeate flux (J) and dimensionless permeate flux ($J/J_o$), and the most total permeate volume ($V_T$) could be produced at the maximum BT 12 sec.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.15-24
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• 2010

Coagulation can be used for pretreatment of NF membrane filtration. Foulants such as organic matter and particulate can be removed effectively with the process while high flux recovery is maintained. Recently various types of polyaluminium coagulants including polyaluminium chloride(PAC) are commercially available for water treatment. This study examines effects of polymeric Al and hydrolysis products of PAC on nanofiltration membrane performance. Dominant hydrolysis products were polymeric Al, $Al(OH)_3$, and ${Al(OH)_4}^{-1}$ at acidic, neutral, and alkaline pH conditions, respectively. Under acidic pH condition, flux decline was increased with increasing PAC concentrations, possibly due to polymeric Al adsorption on membrane pore and/or surfaces. For neutral and alkaline pH conditions, little flux decline was observed with increasing PAC concentrations except the highest ${Al(OH)_4}^{-1}$ concentration, with which rapid flux decline was shown. Removal of ionic matters was also varied with pH conditions in this study. Especially, conductivity removal was substantially low and $Ca^{2+}$ concentration in the permeate was quite high at neutral pH condition.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.168-175
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• 2008

This study was carried out for the plate and frame membrane modules equipped with and without plastic protuberances on the support frame in order to determine the effect of eddy flow induced by the protuberances on permeate flux. The initial time for rapidly declined permeate flux on the module with protuberances was delayed twice or more than that on the module without protuberances when kaolin solution was permeated at the operating pressures from 0.4 to 1.6 bar. Also decreasing ratio of the kaolin solution to pure water flux for module with protuberances was 1 to 5% lower than that for module without protuberances. The flux improvement due to protuberances at laminar flow corresponding Reynolds number 1,750 was about double as compared with that in the transition flow region. In general, the kaolin fouling reduction for the plate module with protuberances during initial filtration process was very effective, even though the permeate flux after 60 minutes filtration did not increase significantly.