Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Pooreum Kim, Hyungsoo Kim, Heekyong Oh, Joon-seok Kang, Sangyoup Lee, Kitae Park
Summary: In this study, fouling mechanisms associated with membrane-based polysaccharide enrichment were investigated using a dense UF membrane. The influence of polysaccharide size and filtration time on fouling mechanisms was quantified. The results showed that the dominant fouling mechanism can change with the size of the polysaccharide and the duration of filtration.
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Ji Qi, Qicheng Zhou, Danlei Huang, Zhong Yu, Fangang Meng
Summary: This study demonstrates the feasibility and benefits of using a synthetic anti-fouling consortium (SAC) for fouling control in membrane bioreactors. The co-cultivation of SAC with sludge significantly mitigates fouling, increases sludge floc size, and decreases the unified membrane fouling index value. The extracellular secretions of SAC inhibit biofilm formation and disperse existing biofilm.
MICROBIAL CELL FACTORIES
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Yifan Wang, Xing Zheng, Dongfei Li, Fangang Meng, Jiayu Tian, Mian Wang, Li Li, Hua Wu, Yaozhong Zhang
Summary: This study used QCM-D and AFM techniques to investigate the effect of monovalent cations on the fouling of sodium alginate on membrane surfaces. The results showed that both Na+ and K+ can enhance the adsorption capacity of SA on the membrane surface, with SA fouling being more severe in the presence of Na+ compared to K+. Additionally, GO-PVDF membranes were more susceptible to SA fouling when Na+ or K+ was present compared to PVDF membranes.
PROCESS SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Lin Tong, Huiyu Gao, Shougang Fan, Caini Liu, Jianyou Wang, Lan Wang, Huaiqi Shao, Xiaoyan Guo
Summary: A systematic investigation into the membrane fouling discrepancies induced by different membrane module arrangements in nanofiltration systems revealed that the degree of fouling was more severe in systems with a Two-Two-One arrangement compared to a Three-Two arrangement. The higher energy consumption and greater membrane fouling mechanisms in the Two-Two-One arrangement highlighted the importance of understanding the effects of membrane module arrangements on membrane fouling for designing efficient membrane systems.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yuan Bai, Yin-Hu Wu, Rui-Ning Wang, Song Xue, Zhuo Chen, Hong-Ying Hu
Summary: In this study, a crucial type of foulant, called the critical minority fraction (FCM), was identified as the main cause of membrane fouling in wastewater reclamation. FCM, with a molecular weight greater than 100 kDa, could be easily separated by physical filtration using a 100 kDa cut-off membrane. It was found that FCM, accounting for less than 20% of the total dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in reclaimed water, contributed to more than 90% of the membrane fouling. The interaction between FCM and membranes was identified as the pivotal fouling mechanism, leading to severe fouling development. Targeted fouling control strategies, such as ozonation and coagulation, were applied and proved to effectively alleviate membrane fouling.
ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL
(2023)
Article
Polymer Science
Iva Curic, Davor Dolar, Josip Horvat, Katia Grgic
Summary: The influence of textile wastewater secondary effluent on the characteristics of ultrafiltration membranes was investigated, showing changes in membrane properties and the formation of fouling layers, with larger pore size membranes exhibiting a greater decrease in permeate flux during treatment.
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Run Li, Shaohan Lian, Zezhou Zhang, Chunfeng Song
Summary: Membrane separation technology is a promising alternative for carbon capture due to its low consumption and low footprint. Facilitated transport membranes exhibit attractive CO2/N2 separation performance, but the pressure and temperature dependent CO2 permeance and non-ideal effects present challenges in carbon capture simulation based on simplifying models. A rigorous model considering non-ideal effects and variable permeance was established for hollow fiber facilitated transport membranes, and compared with a simple model only considering variable permeance. The rigorous model showed a 44%-55% lower carbon capture capacity due to declined driving force and permeance.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Xianghao Meng, Shujuan Meng, Yu Liu
Summary: This article discusses the fouling control issues of microfiltration and ultrafiltration in wastewater treatment, pointing out that sodium alginate is not suitable as a foulant surrogate. It suggests more suitable surrogate foulants and mathematical models for studying fouling mechanisms, and considers support vector machine as a potentially more powerful simulation tool.
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Yifan Wang, Xing Zheng, Zi Wang, Zhaoling Shi, Zan Kong, Min Zhong, Jinkai Xue, Yaozhong Zhang
Summary: The impact of -COOH and -NH2 functional groups on polysaccharide fouling of a membrane surface was investigated at different pH values. Increase in pH led to reduced deposition of -COOH-rich organics, alleviating fouling and its irreversibility, whereas it resulted in more severe polysaccharide fouling for -NH2 functional group. Graphene oxide modification alleviated adsorptive fouling of these two polysaccharides on PVDF, dependent on the abundance of functional groups.
JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Wenyu Xiang, Jingmei Yao, Svetlozar Velizarov, Le Han
Summary: Organic fouling is a major issue in ion-exchange membrane electrochemical systems. This study investigates the fouling of anion-exchange membranes by four different organic solutes, and finds that the electronegativity and hydrophobicity of the solutes have the greatest impact on membrane fouling.
JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE
(2022)
Review
Engineering, Environmental
Cheng Cai, Wenjun Sun, Siyuan He, Yuanna Zhang, Xuelin Wang
Summary: Membrane separation is an important drinking water treatment technology with wide applications. Ceramic membranes have remarkable advantages, but membrane fouling limits their effectiveness. This review analyzes the mechanisms of ceramic membrane fouling and evaluates the approaches aimed at controlling it. Optimizing ceramic membrane preparation and combining process regulations with ceramic membranes are important research directions for ceramic membrane-based water treatment.
FRONTIERS OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Kenneth Arandia, Nabin Kumar Karna, Tuve Mattsson, Anette Larsson, Hans Theliander
Summary: The fouling behavior of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) particles on polyethersulfone (PES) membranes was investigated through fluid dynamic gauging (FDG) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Experimental cross-flow microfiltration of a dilute MCC suspension using 0.45μm PES membranes revealed the formation of a resilient fouling layer with a thickness of 616 +/- 5 μm. MD simulations indicated that deep energy minima between cellulose and PES caused high binding energy and the presence of repulsive hydration forces hindered the adsorption of cellulose particles onto the PES membrane.
JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Thermodynamics
Pengpeng Jia, Zedong Li, Xuefeng Wang, Feng Xu, Minli You, Shangsheng Feng
Summary: A mathematical model was developed to study the methods for improving the detection sensitivity of portable diagnostic devices. By simulating capillary flow and binding reactions on the internal pore surface, the effect of different specifications of nitrocellulose membranes on detection performance was investigated. The simulated results showed that selecting a membrane with an optimal average pore size can achieve the highest detection sensitivity, and a heterogeneous pore distribution design was proposed to improve detection speed and sensitivity.
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS IN HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Mohammad T. Alresheedi
Summary: Humic, protein, and polysaccharide substances are important foulants in membrane systems, but little attention has been paid to the fouling and cleaning behavior of proteins with inorganic colloids in UF membranes. This study found that the combination of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and sodium alginate (SA) with silicon dioxide (SiO2) and a-aluminum oxide (Al2O3) caused higher irreversibility in membrane fouling. The fouling mechanism shifted from cake filtration to complete pore blocking when the combined organics and inorganics were present in water.
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
William Toh, Elisa Yun Mei Ang, Teng Yong Ng, Rongming Lin, Zishun Liu
Summary: A double-layer graphene slit membrane is proposed as a solution to reduce fouling caused by nanoplastic particles in graphene membranes. Molecular dynamics simulations show that the addition of a secondary membrane significantly reduces fouling and improves permeability.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Zhiwei Liang, Guofang Xu, Jiangjian Shi, Sining Yu, Qihong Lu, Dawei Liang, Lianpeng Sun, Shanquan Wang
Summary: Methanogenic sludge digestion is crucial for treating waste activated sludge, with Escherichia coli and associated active microorganisms playing a key role in digesting microbial cells. Microbial source tracking revealed that functional active microorganisms play a significant role in digesting both microbial cells and EPS, with higher efficiency observed after thermal pretreatment.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Shiyu Zuo, Dongya Li, Zeyu Guan, Fan Yang, Junqi Song, Haiming Xu, Dongsheng Xia, Huanxuan Li, Xiaohu Li
Summary: This study successfully developed a synergistic radical/nonradical oxidation pathway by establishing a directional built-in electric field, which enables the efficient and sustained degradation of toxic organic pollutants. By achieving electron synergy, the reaction rate constant was increased by 38.3 times, leading to stable removal of pollutants.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Shujuan Meng, Rui Wang, Xianghao Meng, Ying Wang, Wenhong Fan, Dawei Liang, Meng Zhang, Yuan Liao, Chuyang Tang
Summary: This study investigated the bridging effect of divalent cations (Ca2+ and Mg2+) on polysaccharide fouling. Results showed that Ca2+ alleviated alginate fouling at high concentrations, while Mg2+ worsened membrane fouling caused by alginate compared to Ca2+ at all ion concentrations.
JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jingnan Zhang, Hanghang Chang, Xiaohu Li, Baoxuan Jiang, Tao Wei, Xincheng Sun, Dawei Liang
Summary: This study demonstrates the feasibility of using cylindrical single-chamber microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) for high H-2 production rate and efficient wastewater treatment. The researchers successfully addressed the low H-2 recovery and production rate issues by adjusting the MEC components and enriching the anodic biofilms. The results showed a high H-2 production rate and a significant degradation of acetate and butyrate, indicating the potential of this technology for practical applications.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Chao Qu, Yan-Gang Li, Shu-Juan Meng, Xiao-Hu Li, Shu-Jun Zhang, Da-Wei Liang
Summary: In this study, MnO2 was introduced into the cathodic catalyst layer for in-situ H2O2 decomposition to generate active oxidation species. The ORR-EO system with MnO2/CNTs-C/PTFE air-cathode and Ti/NATO anode successfully eliminated organic carbon in the effluent and saved energy.
JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Qinghao Wu, Dawei Liang, Shanfu Lu, Haining Wang, Yan Xiang, Doron Aurbach, Eran Avraham, Izaak Cohen
Summary: This review summarizes the research progress of membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) in capacitive deionization (CDI) technology, introduces the working mechanism and performance of integrated-MCDI, and summarizes its advantages.
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Na Zhao, Dawei Liang, Hong Liu, Shujuan Meng, Xiaohu Li
Summary: MEC converts organics from wastewater to fuel-grade hydrogen, but long-term operation is hindered by deteriorating hydrogen recovery. This study presents a novel separator-electrode assembly design to effectively block hydrogen crossover and increase hydrogen recovery, achieving high current density and hydrogen production.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Shiyu Zuo, Zeyu Guan, Yiming Zhang, Fan Yang, Xiaohu Li, Dongya Li
Summary: The coordination bridge modification scheme provides a new perspective for regulating the catalytic pathway. MIL-101(Fe)/CuFeOx is found to control the surface catalytic pathway and enhance the oxidation of toxic organic pollutants and CO2 conversion. The introduction of Cu changes the surface chemical environment and promotes the reaction kinetics. The coordination configuration of Cu and Fe tunes the electronic structure, facilitating electron transfer and PMS adsorption. The change in PMS binding configuration shifts the catalytic pathway, generating more ROS and reducing the biotoxicity.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Yue Li, Meifeng Yu, Xianghao Meng, Wenhong Fan, Dawei Liang, Hongju Liu, Linyan Yang, Liang Shen, Qian Zhao, Shujuan Meng
Summary: The influence mechanism of coagulants Al3+ and Fe3+ on the organic foulants was studied. It was found that the addition of different concentrations of coagulants affected the process of polysaccharide aggregation to form transparent exopolymer particles. Small and amorphous particles developed at low concentration of coagulant were intercepted by the membrane, forming a dense fouling layer, while larger granular particles accumulated on the membrane surface, forming a porous fouling layer that mitigated fouling.
SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Bihui Niu, Ling Yang, Shujuan Meng, Dawei Liang, Hongju Liu, Linyan Yang, Liang Shen, Qian Zhao
Summary: This study used time-dependent Hermia models with forward and reverse processing to analyze the membrane fouling mechanism and structure caused by polysaccharide. Results showed different applicability of Hermia classic and mass-transfer models in cross-flow filtration, and the influence of concentration differences on polysaccharide fouling layer structure.
SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Environmental Sciences
Jun Liu, Na Ren, Chao Qu, Shanfu Lu, Yan Xiang, Dawei Liang
Summary: This paper mainly introduces different configurations of electrochemical reactors (ECRs) for the treatment of refractory organic wastewater, and analyzes their advantages and disadvantages. Improved reactors such as 3D-ECR achieve higher mass transfer efficiency by increasing the contact area, and they also have a higher removal rate of organics and lower energy consumption. The future development of ECRs in treating refractory organic wastewater is discussed.
Review
Engineering, Environmental
Chao Qu, Da-wei Liang
Summary: Recently, electrochemical advanced oxidation processes (EAOPs) for water treatment have been implemented using cathodic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) to generate hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). H2O2 can be activated using reagents like Fe2+ and O3 to produce hydroxyl radicals (center dot OH) for further reduction of organic compounds. This study investigates carbon-based materials as catalysts for H2O2 generation cathode and introduces the development of cutting-edge EAOPs based on H2O2 generation cathode through three case studies. The future prospects of EAOPs based on H2O2 generation cathode are discussed.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
(2022)
