The water containing soluble manganese may cause problems such as discolored water, unpleasant taste, fouling or scaling of pipes in water distribution system, and so on. Conventional water treatment processes using sand filtration or sedimentation after oxidation, however, cannot often meet manganese standard for drinking water. Two types of oxidants, potassium permanganate (KMnO4) and sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl), were utilized at the same time for manganese oxidation, and then the precipitated manganese oxides were removed by low pressure membrane filtration in this study. In batch experiments, the multiple injection of both oxidants showed more effective manganese removal than did the single injection using either of them. Moreover, the deterioration of manganese removal at low temperature was less serious for the multiple injection than that for the single injection. Manganese removal by the continuous system of oxidation by multiple injection combined with membrane filtration was higher than those by batch experiments at the same oxidation conditions. In addition, less membrane fouling was observed for membrane filtration with oxidation during continuous membrane filtration than membrane filtration without oxidation. These results indicate that the oxidation by multiple injection coupled with membrane filtration was efficient and applicable to actual water treatment for manganese removal.

막여과 생물반응기는 분리막 공정을 기반으로 한 생물학적 고도 하폐수 처리기술이다. 최근, 막여과 생물반응기 내의 고질적인 문제인 생물막오염을 근본적으로 해결하고자 미생물 간의 정족수 감지(quorum sensing)를 차단하는 정족수감지 억제(quorum quenching) 기술을 적용한 연구가 활발히 보고되고 있다. 이 기술을 침지형 중공사막 생물반응기에 적용할 때 중공사막 간격에 따라 막오염과 정족수 감지 억제 효과가 다를 수 있는데, 그러한 효과를 비교한 연구는 없었다. 따라서 본 연구에서는, 정족수 감지 억제 담체를 적용한 침지형 중공사막생물반응기 안에서 막 사이의 간격에 따른 막오염 정도와 막오염 방지 효과를 비교하였다.