• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.632-638
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• 2005

Membrane fouling index such as Silt Density Index (SDI) and Modified Fouling Index (MFI) is an important parameter in design of the integrated RO/NF membrane processes for drinking water treatment. In this study, the effect of particle, membrane and feed water characteristics on membrane fouling index were investigated systematically. Higher fouling index values were observed when filtering suspensions with smaller particle size and higher feed particle concentration. Larger membrane resistance due to smaller pore size resulted in an increased membrane fouling index. The variations of feed water hardness and TDS concentrations did not show any impact on fouling index, suggesting that there were no significant colloidal interactions among particles and thus the porosity of particle cake layer accumulated on the membrane surface could be assumed to be 0.36 according to random packing density. Based on the experimental observations, fundamental membrane fouling index model was developed using Happel Cell. The effect of primary model parameters including particle size ($a_p$), particle concentration ($C_o$), membrane resistance ($R_m$), were accurately assessed without any fitting parameters, and the prediction of membrane fouling index such as MFI exhibited very good agreement with the experimental results.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.395-409
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• 2017

Membrane bioreactor (MBR) is a compact and efficient wastewater treatment and reclamation technology; but, it is limited by membrane fouling. The control of membrane fouling significantly increases operational and maintenance costs. Bacteria and their byproducts - extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) - are major contributors to membrane fouling in MBRs. A recent attempt at fouling mitigation is the development of aerobic granular sludge membrane bioreactor (AGMBR) through the integration of a novel biotechnology - aerobic granulation - and MBR. This paper provides an overview on the development of AGMBR to mitigate membrane fouling caused by bacteria and EPS. In AGMBR, EPS are used up in granule formation; and, the rigid structure of granules provides a surface for bacteria to attach to rather than the membrane surface. Preliminary research on AGMBR using synthetic wastewater show remarkable membrane fouling reduction compared to conventional MBR, thus improved membrane filtration. Enhanced performance in AGMBR using actual municipal wastewater at pilot-scale has also been reported. Therefore, further research is needed to determine AGMBR optimal operational conditions to enhance granule stability in long-term operations and in full-scale applications.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.775-780
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• 2005

This study was performed to investigate the effect of foulant characteristics on Membrane fouling index such as Silt Density Index (SDI) and Modified Fouling Index (MFI). A linear relationship was found relating the fouling index (both SDI and MFI) on particle concentration, but fouling index values were nonlinearly (exponentially) with increasing organic concentration. When organic matter was the primary cause of fouling, the MFI was not accurately predicted due to internal fouling such as pore adsorption. The fouling index was determined mainly by particle characteristics when both particle and organic coexisted in the feed water. This observation was attributed to lessening of organic pore adsorption by particle cake layer formed on the membrane surface. Bench-scale actual fouling experiments demonstrated that permeate flux declines much faster with feed water containing particles than organic matters although fouling potential predicted by SDI values were identical, indicating that the accurate prediction of fouling potential requires the development of fouling index reflecting different foulant characteristics.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.353-361
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• 2018

Fouling characteristics of humic substances on tight ultrafiltration (UF) membrane have been investigated. The tight UF membrane was prepared by blending polysulfone (PSf) in N.N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) with 25%wt of Polyethylene glycol (PEG400) and 4%wt of acetone. Fouling characteristic of the modified PSf membrane was observed during peat water filtration in different trans-membrane pressure (TMP). It was found that the acetone modified membrane provided 13% increase in TMP during five hours of peat water filtration, where a stable flux was reached within 150 minutes. Meanwhile, the increase of TMP from 10 psig to 30 psig resulted in a fouling resistance enhancement of 60%. Furthermore, based on the fouling analysis, fouling mechanism at the first phase of filtration was attributed to intermediate blocking while the second phase was cake formation.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.379-392
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• 2015

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) ultrafiltration membrane was prepared by blending 12 wt.% of PVC in N, N-dimethylacetimide (DMAc) with polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG400) as an additive. The influence of PEG400 concentration on the PVC membrane morphology, permeability, fouling and rejection were investigated. Fouling and rejection of the PVC membrane were characterized by dextran T-100 filtration. The results showed that membrane water flux was increased up to $682Lm^{-2}h^{-1}$ when 28 wt.% of PEG400 was added into the PVC membrane solution. The best membrane performance with a low fouling and a high selectivity was achieved by adding 12 wt.% concentration of PEG400, which resulted in 90% rejection of dextran and 90% of flux recovery ratio. At further addition of PEG400 concentration, irreversible fouling was starting to increase. A 90% of irreversible fouling was formed in the PVC membrane when more than 22 wt.% of PEG400 is added.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.09a
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• pp.57-85
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• 1998

RO System & Membrance Support Technology Membrance Fouling -Colloidal Fouling -Scale Fouling -Biological Fouling -Chemical Fouling

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.619-627
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• 2004

Purposes of this study were to examine closely the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) which was a membrane fouling contaminant, to control detected EPS by powdered activated carbon (PAC) dosage etc. and to evaluate the possibility of practical reuse facility. With high removal efficiency of general pollutants, when the PAC is added to MBR, improvement of removal efficiency of $COD_{cr}$, and color was expected and treated wastewater can be reused. It was judged that the correlation between EPS and membrane fouling was very high. Carbohydrate and DNA in the EPS were judged to be cause of membrane fouling. If EPS could be controled, not only membrane fouling would be decreased but also operation time would be extended. In experiment of powdered activated carbon (PAC), characteristics of the best PAC for membrane fouling control were the particle size of $7{\mu}m$, lodine Number of 1,050, surface area of peat of $1,150m^2/g$. In lab test, operation time of MBR by PAC dosage of 200mg/gVSS was longer than one of MBR by without PAC dosage. Because EPS, especially carbohydrate and DNA, was controled successfully by PAC, membrane fouling in MBR could be decreased.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.1079-1085
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to find the operational characteristics of nitrifier-dominated membrane bioreactor (MBR), which has been extensively studied for organic removal, especially in terms of nitrite ($NO_2$-N) build-up and membrane fouling. Membrane fouling is one of the important factor which determines the economics of MBR system. The characteristics of membrane fouling was monitored in terms of the fouling indices such as sludge volume index (SVI), the concentration of total organic carbon (TOC) and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in a membrane permeate or sludge extract, the absorbance of supernatant at 260 nm. Most of index values except for protein concentration in EPS had a close relation with the increase of suction pressure and SVI value. Nitrifying MBR was superior to the conventional organic-oxidizing MBR in terms of membrane fouling since the fouling index value of nitrifying MBR was lower than that of BOD-oxidizing MBR.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.289-296
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• 2005

In the MBR process, the membrane fouling occurs seriously on the membrane surface. In general, the membrane fouling is attributed to factors such as deposition or adhesion of sludge floc. The occurrence of fouling is a main cause of a decrease in membrane module fluk. At this study, our MBR membrane is manufactured by nano-particle with excellent anti-fouling character. The fine nano-material which can repel the sludge Hoc from the membrane surface is distributed in the membrane surface. We confirm anti-fouling effect, test continuously in the pilot site.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.55-66
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• 2002

fouling phenomena of ion exchange membranes were reviewed for improved design and operation of electodialysis. The membrane fouling index for electrodialysis (EDMFI) was defined for the quantitative analysis of fouling potential as an analogy to the pressure-driven membrane process. fouling phenomena were compared in the electrodialysis experiments with inorganic foulant (silica sol) and organic foulants (humate and bovine serum albumin (BSA)), and their fouling potentials were analyzed using the fouling index. The comparison showed that the EDMFI could be used as a quantitative measure of the fouling tendency in electrodialysis processes. As a novel fouling mitigation method, square wave power was reported to be effective in electrodialysis with organic foulants. The square wave powers having the pulsed electric field enabled to reduce the membrane fouling significantly at an optimal frequency.