While commercial polystyrene-based ion exchange membranes have simple manufacturing processes, they also possess the poor durability due to their brittleness. Poly(ethylene glycol)methyl ether methacrylate with hydrophilic side chain of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) was used as a co-monomer to make the membranes have improved flexibility. Hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity of the anion exchange membrane was able to be adjusted by varying the chain lengths of the PEG. For the preparation of the anion exchange membranes, a porous PE substrate was immersed into monomer solutions and thermally polymerized. The prepared membranes were then subsequently post-aminated using trimethylamine. The prepared pore-filled anion exchange membranes were evaluated in terms of ion exchange capacity, electric resistance and water uptake.

Carbon dioxide recovery by vacuum stripping at low temperatures (below 100°C) could be a promising technology to substitute the desorption process in conventional aqueous amine absorption process. We prepared composite membranes by coating hydrophobic silicalite-filled PDMS layers on porous PE supports and used as new membrane strippers for CO2 recovery to prevent typical pore wetting problem of hydrophobic PTFE porous membranes. CO2 fluxes were measured under various operation conditions, such as different vacuum pressures, stripping temperatures, CO2 loadings, types of amine solutions and operation time. The composite membranes showed excellent long-term stability in vacuum stripping process when compared with porous PTFE membranes.

A series of amphiphilic block copolymers consisting of hydrophobic poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(polyethylene glycol methyl ether methacrylate) (PPEGEMA) were synthesized by Cu based ATRP and utilized as an additive to prepare asymmetric ultrafiltration (UF) membranes by non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) with PVDF. Obtained PVDF based UF membranes gave in-situ hydrophilic surfaces on the hydrophobic PVDF matrix because of strong compatibility PMMA block segment to PVDF and the hydrophilicty of PPEGMA block segment to the non-solvent (water), which showed improved water flux in comparison to neat PVDF UF membrane.

(주)에코니티에서 개발한 자유말단형 분리막모듈(End-Free type)은 기존 분리 막 모듈과는 달리 고농도의 MLSS(Mixed Liquor Suspended Solids) 에서도 지속적인 운전이 가능하며, 그 외 다양한 현장 문제 발생 시에서도 쉽게 대응이 가능하여 안정적으로 운영이 가능한 특징을 가지고 있다. 본 연구에서는 (주)에코니티 자유말단형 분리막의 MBR(Membrane Bioreactor) 장기 운전 성능을 평가하였다. 운영을 하는 동안 발생하는 이벤트에 대한 해결 방안을 확인하면서 최적의 운전조건을 검토하였다. 또한 하수처리수가 재이용으로 적용되는 시스템에서 MBR 처리수가 역삼투 멤브레인의 원수로 공급되는 만큼 안정적이며 양호한 수질이 생성되는지 지속적으로 검토하였다.