Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, 02841, Republic of Korea.
Korean Peninsula Infrastructure Cooperation Team, Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT), Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, 10223, Republic of Korea.
Chemosphere. 2021 Oct;280:130763. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.130763. Epub 2021 May 3.
Membrane fouling occurs when the operating flux exceeds a certain point (i.e., critical flux). Critical flux has therefore been widely adopted to determine the initial operating flux in membrane bioreactor (MBR) processes. The flux steeping method currently used to measure the critical flux is time-consuming and uneconomical. This study was conducted to develop a novel approach for the evaluation of critical flux. Given that particle fouling is dominant during the initial fouling stage, we hypothesized that particle properties may be closely related to critical flux. A critical flux prediction model with an R of 0.9 was therefore derived, which indicates that particle properties regulate critical flux. The results imply that most of the fouling potential during the early stages of operation is caused by SS, and that the formation of cakes that comprise large particles is the dominant fouling mechanism. The new method proposed in this study reduced the measurement cost and time to evaluate critical flux by 3.5-and 8 times, respectively, compared to the flux-stepping method. In terms of practical application, the applicability of the model equation was identified by system reliability analysis, which indicates that the system failure increases significantly as the standard deviation of the variables increases. This study demonstrated that the prediction of critical flux and system reliability can be achieved through particle characteristic measurement. A similar approach is expected to be employed in real MBR plants as an economical and convenient fouling control strategy to solve problems involving resource shortages.
当操作通量超过某个点（即临界通量）时，就会发生膜污染。因此，临界通量已被广泛用于确定膜生物反应器（MBR）过程中的初始操作通量。目前用于测量临界通量的通量陡降法既耗时又不经济。本研究旨在开发一种评估临界通量的新方法。鉴于颗粒污染在初始污染阶段占主导地位，我们假设颗粒特性可能与临界通量密切相关。因此，得出了一个具有 0.9 的 R 的临界通量预测模型，表明颗粒特性调节了临界通量。结果表明，在操作的早期阶段，大部分的污染潜力是由 SS 引起的，并且由大颗粒组成的滤饼的形成是主要的污染机制。与通量陡降法相比，本研究提出的新方法分别将评估临界通量的测量成本和时间降低了 3.5 倍和 8 倍。在实际应用方面，通过系统可靠性分析确定了模型方程的适用性，这表明随着变量标准差的增加，系统故障显著增加。本研究表明，通过颗粒特性测量可以实现临界通量和系统可靠性的预测。预计类似的方法将作为一种经济便捷的污染控制策略应用于实际的 MBR 工厂，以解决资源短缺问题。
