• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.125-136
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• 2017

Reverse osmosis technology is being used on large scale for treatment of ground water, brackish water, wastewater and sea water. The most challenging issue in RO process is carbonate scaling which is directly linked with the efficiency and economy. Considering the natural phenomena of carbonate scaling different adaptations have been made to control scaling on the surface of RO membrane including acid dosage and antiscalant addition. As carbonate scaling is directly related with pH level of feed water, present study describes an experimental approach to reduce scaling on RO membrane by lowering the feed water pH by purging $CO_2$. In this comparative study four different conditions including control process (without any scale inhibitor), with dosage of antiscalant, with purging of $CO_2$ and with co addition of antiscalant and $CO_2$ in a feed stream line; it was established that $CO_2$ is a better appliance to reduce carbonate scaling on the membrane surface by reduce pH of feed stream. It was also observed that $CO_2$ and antiscalant mutually function better for scale control.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.33 no.9
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• pp.677-685
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• 2011

The reverse osmosis membrane processes have several operational problems. Fouling by inorganic scale occurs on membrane surface due to increases in concentrations over solubility by retaining ions on feed side of the membrane. Inorganic scales could be controlled by antiscalants or acid addition. In this study, three antiscalants having different characteristics were selected and evaluated on efficiency of $CaCO_3$ scale control. The $CaCO_3$ scale was inhibited by the antiscalants : 0.4 mg/L for SHMP, 0.6 mg/L for Spectra Guard, and 3 mg/L for Flocon 150 N. Increasing concentration factors of simulated sea water resulted in increases in antiscalant doses for the scale control. The increases in doses were positively proportional to the concentrate factors used in this study. Spectra Guard, one of the polyacrylate type antiscalants, was the most effective to control $CaCO_3$ scale. The antiscalants with the different scale inhibition time and doses implied the different control mechanisms.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.511-519
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• 2016

Shale gas has become increasingly important as a viable alternative to conventional gas resources. However, one of the critical issues in the development of shale gas is the generation of produced water, which contains high concentration of ionic compounds (> TDS of 100,000 mg/L). Accordingly, membrane distillation (MD) was considered to treat such produced water. Experiments were carried out using a laboratory-scale direct contact MD (DCMD). Synthetic produced water was prepared to examine its fouling propensity in MD process. Antiscalants and in-line filtration were applied to control fouling by scale formation. Fouling rates (-dJ/dt) were calculated for in-depth analysis of fouling behaviors. Results showed that severe fouling occurred during the treatment of high range produced water (TDS of 308 g/L). Application of antiscalant was not effective to retard scale formation. On the other hand, in-line filtration increased the induction time and reduced fouling.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.16-21
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• 2008

A non-phosphorous program employing an alkyl epoxy carboxylate (AEC) has been successfully applied to petrochemical and other large industrial open recirculating cooling water systems. AEC is a patented non-phosphorous calcium carbonate scale inhibitor that has demonstrated better scale inhibition abilities than traditional organic phosphonates. In addition to its antiscalant properties, AEC inhibits carbon steel corrosion when used at high dosages. AEC can be combined with zinc to form a non-phosphorous program with very low levels of phosphate to provide an environmentally acceptable program. In actual applications, the total phosphate developed in the cooling system from cycling the makeup is below 1 ppm as $PO_4$. This level has complied with the highest standards of wastewater discharge limitations. The performance of two AEC/Zinc applications is reviewed. In both cases excellent corrosion and scale control were achieved with AEC/Zinc programs. One case history details the performance with a low hardness water (100 ppm calcium, as $CaCO_3$) operating at 8-10 cycles of concentration. The corrosive nature of the water and the long retention time of the system stressed both the corrosion and scale control capabilities of the program. The second case history demonstrates the performance of the program with a moderate hardness water (400-600 ppm calcium, as $CaCO_3$), but under harsh conditions of high temperature and low flow. The AEC/zinc combination has been found to be highly effective in controlling the corrosion of ferrous metals. AEC can provide good corrosion inhibition at high concentrations, while zinc is known to be an excellent cathodic inhibitor. The combination of the two inhibitors not only provides a synergistic blend that is effective over a wide range of operating conditions, but also is environmentally friendly.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.158-162
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• 2005

The objective of this study was to assess the assimilable organic carbon (AOC) in processing water, a measurement of biostability, at several stages of a full-scale nanofiltration (NF) water treatment plant. The NF membrane plant investigated was a $45,400\;m^3$/day (12 mgd) water softening facility at Plantation City in southern Florida, which utilized an organic rich groundwater (dissolved organic carbon (DOC) = 17.6 mg/L) originated from a surficial aquifer. The average AOC concentration of raw feed water was estimated at 158 g/L acetate-C. After pretreatment(acid and antiscalant addition), AOC levels increased by 12.7%, suggesting that pretreatment chemicals used to control scaling may deteriorate feed water biostability. The results also demonstrated that nanofiltration was capable of effectively removing 63.4% of AOC and 94.8% of DOC from the raw water. AOC rejection in stage 1 (${\approx}\;68%$) was slightly higher than that of stage 2 (${\approx}\;58%$) indicating that AOC was removed less at the solution environment (i.e. low pH, high ionic strength and high hardness), which was often created in the $2^{nd}$ stage of full-scale membrane plants due to pretreatment (acid addition) and high recovery operation.