1. Title, Journal and Authors

Title: A more effective method for fouling characterization in a full-scale reverse osmosis process

Journal: Nature Reviews

Authors: Kwee Guan Tay, Lianfa Song

Center for Water Research, Department of Civil Engineering, National University of Singapore,

10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260

 

2. Summary

Kwee Guan Tay et al. researched about method for fouling characterization in reverse osmosis process. They summarized two different approaches for fouling characterization. The first one is mass transfer limited case and the second one is thermodynamic equilibrium limited case.  Membrane resistance and filtration coefficient (and fouling index) are used as an indicator for the state of fouling respectively. From the results of this study, they can make a conclusion that filtration coefficient and fouling index are a more effective measurements of fouling than membrane resistance. Filtration coefficient is a collective parameter of a membrane system. In addition, the filtration coefficient and fouling index can be used to test performance of membrane cleaning.

 

3. Originality & Creativity

 - Two different fouling indicators are compared.

 - Proper membrane fouling prediction indicators are proposed.

 

4. Application to research

 - To predict membrane fouling, we need to know about the membrane fouling indicator. In operating periods of reverse osmosis, characteristics of membrane fouling is different. Therefore, several membrane fouling indicators are need to collectively predict membrane fouling.

 

5. Contact

SeungJi Lim (Integrated Ph.D. program)

Environmental Systems Engineering Lab.

School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Engineering

Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology

1 Oryong-dong Buk-gu Gwangju, 500-712, Korea

 Phone : +82-10-7935-8845

E-mail : fblsj90@gist.ac.kr