열유도상분리법(TIPS) 및 연신의 복합공정으로 막증류(Membrane distillation, MD)용의 소수성 및 다공성 PVDF 중공사 분리막을 제조하였다. 제조된 분리막을 막증류 공정에 적용하여 처리수량을 극대화하기 위한 방안으로 모듈의 형태와 운전조건 및 병렬 연결 시 배관의 크기 영향을 확인하고자 하였다. 진공 막증류 모듈의 최적화 실험에서는 모듈 내 분리막의 충진율과 길이가 증가할수록 플럭스는 감소하며, 진공포트의 위치는 모듈을 수직으로 연결하였을 때 원수의 inlet 방향에 위 치할수록 플럭스 측면에서 가장 유리한 것으로 확인되었다. 모듈의 헤더배관의 크기선정에서는 중공사막의 내경면적과 헤더 배관의 내경면적이 동일할 경우 최대 플럭스를 나타냄을 확인할 수 있었으며, 모듈 내 선속도가 높을수록 높은 플럭스를 나타내지만 모듈에 작용하는 압력 역시 비례하여 증가하기 때문에 최적 선속도를 찾는 것이 필요하다.

In this study, thermal performance test of VMD module was performed, prior to the construction of the demonstration plant using the vacuum membrane distillation　(VMD) module of the capacity of 400 m3/day and to the commercialization of the VMD module. For the thermal performance test, the experimental equipment of capacity of 2 m3/day was constructed. The permeate flux test and thermal performance test according to feed water conditions such as temperature and flow rate were conducted. The VMD module used in the study was manufactured by ECONITY Co., LTD with PVDF hollow fiber membrane. As a result, the Performance Ratio (PR) of the VMD module showed the maximum value of 0.904 under the condition of feed water temperature of 75℃ and flow rate of 8 m3/h. PR value of the VMD module using PVDF hollow fiber membrane showed linearly increasing relationship with feed water temperature and flow rate. Also, The permeate flux of the VMD module was analyzed to have maximum value of 18.25 LMH and the salt rejection was 99.99%.

In this study, a direct contact membrane module was manufactured to be used in a pilot scale membrane distillation process to treat 3 m3/day of the digestate produced from anaerobic digestion of livestock manure. In order to investigate the performance of the membrane module, permeate flux was measured with and without spacer inside the module under various condition of temperature difference and cross flow velocity (CFV) through the membrane surfaces. Flux recovery rate after chemical cleaning was also investigated by applying three different cleaning methods. Additionally, thermal energy consumption was theoretically simulated based on actual pilot plant operation conditions. As results, we observed flux of the module with spacer was almost similar to the theoretically predicted value because the installation of spacer reduced the channeling effect inside the module. Under the same operating condition, the permeate flux also increased with increasing temperature difference and CFV. As a result of chemical in-line cleaning using NaOCl and citric acid for the fouled membranes, the recovery rate was 83.7% compared to the initial flux when NaOCl was used alone, and 87% recovery rate was observed when only citric acid was used. However, in the case of using only citric acid, the permeate flux was decreased at a rapid rate. It seemed that a cleaning by NaOCl was more effective to recover the flux of membrane contaminated by the organic matter as compared to a cleaning by citric acid. The total heat energy consumption increased with increasing CFV and temperature difference across the membrane. Thus, further studies should be intensively conducted to obtain a high permeate flux while keeping the energy consumption to a minimum for a practical application of membrane distillation process to treat wastewater.

In this study, the performance experiment was conducted to compare the permeate flux of hollow fiber Vacuum Membrane Distillation module according to leak problem between module housing and membrane bundle. For the permeate flux performance experiment of the two Vacuum Membrane Distillation modules, the Lab-scale experimental equipment was built in the capacity of 1㎥/day. The performance test of the two Vacuum Membrane Distillation modules were analyzed according to the feed water conditions. As a result, it was analyzed that the leak VMD module decreased about 14% of permeate flux than normal VMD module.

막 증류법은 다양한 형태로 운전이 가능하며 각각의 운전의 경우에 따라 물 질전달 계수 및 열전달의 효율이 다르게 나타난다. 또한, 모듈 형태 뿐 아니라 배관의 크기와 배열의 영향을 많이 받게 되는데 원수의 쏠림 현상이 발생할 뿐 만 아니라 수투과도를 향상시킬 수 없는 단점이 있다. 이에 본 연구를 통해 처 리수 생산량을 극대화하고 비용(원자재, 에너지, 인건비)은 최소화할 수 있는 모듈 및 배열의 최적 조건을 도출하였다. 실험에 사용된 분리막은 (주)에코니티에서 제조되었으며 사용된 원수는 염화나트륨 3.5%, VMD (Vacuum Membrane Distillation) 방식으로 실험을 실시하였다.