Effect of a suspended carrier on membrane fouling in a submerged membrane bioreactor.

In an attempt at membrane fouling control, a kind of cylindrical plastic suspended carrier was added in a submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR) and its effect was investigated in this study. According to the transmembrane pressure (TMP) profiles and the sludge characteristics in comparative runs with and without suspended carriers, it was found that the suspended carriers added in SMBR had two effects on membrane fouling: one was the positive effect of mechanically scouring the membrane surface and the other was the negative effect of breaking up sludge flocs. Sludge particle size distribution change was mainly responsible. It was suggested to apply the suspended carrier at higher MLSS concentration and lower carrier dose based on the consideration for retarding sludge breakage caused by the carrier. The experiment was conducted under higher MLSS (8 gL(-1)) and lower carrier dose (carrier volume/total volume = 10/). The TMP increase was effectively retarded by added suspended carriers compared to the system without addition of the carriers. The effect of suspended carriers on membrane fouling at high MLSS concentration was verified.     

一体式膜生物反应器膜污染防治理论研究

从理论上分析了一体式膜生物反应器内曝气量与污水流量、反应器设计高度、主副腔过流面积的关系,膜外污染错流临界流速与抽吸压力及主腔宽度的关系,膜管内污染的临界速度与膜管径、膜壁吸力的关系,并得出采用化学方法消除膜污染的原理。     

Quantitative analysis of biological effect on membrane fouling in submerged membrane bioreactor.

The objective of this study is to investigate solids concentration and extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) effects on the membrane fouling in the submerged membrane bioreactor. The relationship between the solids retention time (SRT) and the amount of EPS is observed in three lab-scale MBRs. Additionally, the EPS effect on membrane fouling is quantified by calculating the specific cake resistance (alpha) using an unstirred batch cell test. By observing the sludge over a long period under various SRT scenarios, a wide range of EPS and membrane fouling data is obtained. These observations provide sufficient evidence of the functional relationship between SRT, EPS and alpha. As SRT decreases, the amount of EPS bound in sludge floc becomes higher in the high MLSS condition (> 5,000 mg/L). The amount of EPS in the sludge floc has positive influence on alpha. A sigmoid trend between EPS and alpha is observed and the functional relationship obtained by dimensional analysis is consistent with the experimental results.     

Characteristics of membrane fouling in submerged membrane bioreactor under sub-critical flux operation.

Recently, the membrane bioreactor (MBR) process has become one of the novel technologies to enhance the performance of biological treatment of wastewater. Membrane bioreactor process uses the membrane unit to replace a sediment tank, and this can greatly enhance treatment performance. However, membrane fouling in MBR restricts its widespread application because it leads to permeate flux decline, making more frequent membrane cleaning and replacement necessary, which then increases operating and maintenance costs. This study investigated the sludge characteristics in membrane fouling under sub-critical flux operation and also assessed the effect of shear stress on membrane fouling. Membrane fouling was slow under sub-critical flux operation. However, as filamentous microbes became dominant in the reactor, membrane fouling increased dramatically due to the increased viscosity and polysaccharides. A close link was found between membrane fouling and the amount of polysaccharides in soluble EPS. The predominant resistance was the cake resistance which could be minimized by increasing the shear stress. However, the resistance of colloids and solutes was not apparently reduced by increasing shear stress. Therefore, smaller particles such as macromolecules (e.g. polysaccharides) may play an important role in membrane fouling under sub-critical flux operation.     

The fouling characterization and control in the high concentration PAC membrane bioreactor HCPAC-MBR.

This study focuses on the experimental investigation to identify the effect of PAC at high concentrations on the fouling of membranes. A pilot-scale experimental apparatus was installed at a water treatment plant located downstream of Nakdong river basin, Korea. Effluent of rapid sand filter was used as influent of the system, which consists of PAC bio-reactor, submerged membrane module (hollow fiber with pore size 0.1 m) and air supply facility. PAC was dosed at 40 g/L initially and it was not replaced during the operation period. Suction type filtration was carried out at intervals of 12 min. suction and 3 min. idling. At the initial flux 0.36 m/d, the system could be operated stably for around 90 days at target trans-membrane pressure (TMP) of 40 kPa. Among total resistance of membrane filtration, cake and gel layer resistance, Rc+Rg, was the dominant fraction (more than 90% of the total) to increase the filtration pressure, which means that the filtration resistance could be controlled by the PAC cake layer and then irreversible membrane fouling could be prevented. Three minutes air backwashing every 3 days could extend the operation period to 127 days. Organics were analyzed in terms of molecular weight structure. The influent of the system consists of 15.0% and 74.4% of hydrophobic and hydrophilic natural organic matter (NOM), respectively. Hydrophobic and hydrophilic (electrostatic) interaction was the main factor on fouling of the membrane in the reactor. Hydrophobic fraction decreased slightly in the effluent, which means hydrophobic NOM removal in the reactor by adsorption. Organics accumulated in the membrane were extracted for analysis after a certain period of operation. The fraction of hydrophobic and hydrophilic organics was 41.4% and 38.9%, respectively. On the basis of the experimental results, the hydrophobic organics were the major materials causing the fouling of the membrane, which should be changed to other types of material.     

延缓膜生物反应器膜污染的技术措施探讨

膜生物反应器(MBR)是膜分离技术和污水生物处理技术有机结合产生的一种新型污水处理工艺,与传统污水处理工艺相比具有很多优点,但膜污染是限制膜生物反应器广泛应用的关键因素.介绍了膜污染的定义,系统论述了膜污染的研究进展,着重从改良膜的性质,改善污泥混合液的特性和优化膜分离操作条件3个方面介绍了国内外有效延缓膜污染的技术措施.     

Pulse shear stress for anaerobic membrane bioreactor fouling control

Increase of shear stress at membrane surfaces is a generally applied strategy to minimize membrane fouling. It has been reported that a two-phase flow, better known as slug flow, is an effective way to increase shear stress. Hence, slug flow was introduced into an anaerobic membrane bioreactor for membrane fouling control. Anaerobic suspended sludge was cultured in an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AMBR) operated with a side stream inside-out tubular membrane unit applying sustainable flux flow regimes. The averaged particle diameter decreased from 20 to 5 microm during operation of the AMBR. However, the COD removal efficiency did not show any significant deterioration, whereas the specific methanogenic activity (SMA) increased from 0.16 to 0.41 gCOD/g VSS/day. Nevertheless, the imposed gas slug appeared to be insufficient for adequate fouling control, resulting in rapidly increasing trans membrane pressures (TMP) operating at a flux exceeding 16 L/m2/h. Addition of powdered activated carbon (PAC) enhanced the effect of slug flow on membrane fouling. However, the combined effect was still considered as not being significant. The tubular membrane was subsequently equipped with inert inserts for creating a locally increased shear stress for enhanced fouling control. Results show an increase in the membrane flux from 16 L/m2/h to 34 L/m2/h after the inserts were mounted in the membrane tube.     

膜生物反应器的污泥特性和膜污染研究

对中试规模的缺氧—好氧—膜生物反应器(A/O—MBR)处理城市污水进行研究,并对好氧池内活性污泥的特性和膜污染后期的影响因素进行了分析。试验结果表明:污泥浓度(MLSS)对CODCr、氨氮等各指标的处理效果均有影响。与传统活性污泥工艺相比,膜生物反应器污泥负荷小、表观产泥率低。     

The membrane fouling simulator: a suitable tool for prediction and characterisation of membrane fouling.

A new tool--the Membrane Fouling Simulator (MFS)--is developed to measure membrane fouling (pressure drop increase) in a small and simple system, representative for spiral wound membranes applied in water treatment. With the MFS, fouling development can be monitored systematically by (i) pressure drop, (ii) in situ and non-destructive (visual) observations using the sight glass and (iii) analysis of coupons sampled from the membrane sheet in the MFS. A comparison study of the MFS with spiral wound membrane elements (test rigs and a full scale installation) showed the same fouling. The MFS provided reproducible data. The small size and low water and chemical use of the MFS facilitate to perform systematic parallel studies. With the MFS, fouling of membranes applied in water treatment can be characterised.     

Treatment of winery wastewaters in a membrane submerged bioreactor.

Wine production is seasonal, and thus the wastewater flow and its chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentrations greatly vary during the vintage and non-vintage periods, as well as being dependant on the winemaking technologies used, e.g. red, white or special wines production. Due to this seasonal high variability in terms of organic matter load, the use of membrane biological reactors (MBR) could be suitable for the treatment of such wastewaters. MBR offers several benefits, such as rapid start up, good effluent quality, low footprint area, absence of voluminous secondary settler and its operation is not affected by the settling properties of the sludge. A pilot scale hollow fibre MBR system of 220 L was fed by adequately diluting white wine with tap water, simulating wastewaters generated in wineries. The COD in the influent ranged between 1,000 and 4,000 mg/L. In less than 10 days after the start up, the system showed a good COD removal efficiency. The COD elimination percentage was always higher than 97% regardless of the organic loading rate (OLR) applied (0.5-2.2 kg COD/m3 d), with COD concentrations in the effluent ranging between 20 and 100 mg/L. Although the biomass concentration in the reactor increased from 0.5 to 8.6 g VSS/L, the suspended solids concentration in the effluent was negligible. Apparent biomass yield was estimated in 0.14 g VSS/g COD.     

Domestic wastewater treatment with a small-scale membrane bioreactor.

A small-scale membrane plant for treating the domestic wastewater of a four-person household is presented. The membrane bioreactor has been in operation for 6 months and achieves elimination rates of 90, 95 and 80% for total organic carbon, chemical oxygen demand and total nitrogen, respectively. Only a small amount sludge is produced. The permeate is reused for flushing toilets and has a yellowish colour. After investigations of the effluent quality, decolourisation of the permeate, energy efficiency and control strategies in the first year, urine will be treated separately in an automated precipitation reactor where struvite is produced to improve the overall phosphate removal of the plant.     

Treatment of toilet wastewater for reuse in a membrane bioreactor.

Toilet wastewater is treated and reused on site at Europe's highest membrane bioreactor (MBR), located in a cable car mountain station in the ski resort of Zermatt. Negative impacts on the sensitive mountain environment are minimised by reusing close to 100% of the treated wastewater for toilet flushing. Besides 100% nitrogen removal, 80% of phosphorus was also eliminated. This paper presents operational results, optimisations of sludge management, decoloration and long-term maintenance of biomass in the very low-loaded summer season. From a global view the experiences and results of the project are of great importance, proposing a solution to a problem existing 100-fold in the Alps as well as in arid regions all over the world: reducing water consumption for sanitation by reuse.     

Function of dynamic membrane in self-forming dynamic membrane coupled bioreactor.

The Self-Forming Dynamic Membrane Coupled Bioreactor (SFDMBR), which uses coarse pore-sized material to separate solid and liquid in bioreactors, has some advantages compared with MBR using micro-/ultra-filtration membranes, for example, low module cost and high flux. The cake layer and gel layer formed on the surface and in the pores of the material during filtration played an important role, called self-forming dynamic membrane (DM), which mainly consisted of activated sludge. In this study, the function of DM in pollutant removal was investigated. It was found that DM could remove some organic matter (12.6 mg L(-1) on average) and total nitrogen (3.01 mg L(-1) on average) in the supernatant. Colloids and organic nitrogen were partly removed by DM while DOC, ammonia nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen removal by DM varied from negative to positive, which resulted from the combination of various biological activities, e.g. nitrification, biological utilization and so on. DO concentration in DM decreased with the depth and reached zero at about 1.5-2.5 mm depth. The organic degradation activity and nitrification activity of the biomass suspended in the bioreactor were higher than those of the biomass in the cake layer, which might be caused by the low DO concentration and low organic pollutant content in DM.     

Continuous biological ferrous iron oxidation in a submerged membrane bioreactor.

Microbial oxidation of ferrous iron may be available alternative method of producing ferric iron, which is a reagent used for removal of H2S from biogas. In this study, a submerged membrane bioreactor (MBR) system was employed to oxidize ferrous iron to ferric iron. In the submerged MBR system, we could keep high concentration of iron-oxidizing bacteria and high oxidation rate of ferrous iron. There was membrane fouling caused by chemical precipitates such as K-jarosite and ferric phosphate. However, a strong acidity (pH 1.75) of solution and low ferrous iron concentration (below 3000 mg/I) significantly reduced the fouling of membrane module during the bioreactor operation. A fouled membrane module could be easily regenerated with a 1 M of sulfuric acid solution. In conclusion, the submerged MBR could be used for high-density culture of iron-oxidizing bacteria and for continuous ferrous iron oxidation. As far as our knowledge concerns, this is the first study on the application of a submerged MBR to high acidic conditions (below pH 2).     

Effects of complete sludge retention on biomass build-up in a membrane bioreactor.

The work reports the main results of an experimental activity aimed at evaluating the performance of a membrane bioreactor with complete sludge retention and the characteristics of its biomass. The bench scale system was started-up without any sludge inoculum and fed on real municipal sewage in order to favour biomass selection based on the imposed operating conditions. Process performance was evaluated in terms of COD removal (above 90% on average) and nitrification under two pre-determined volumetric loading rates (0.8 and 1.7 gCOD L(react)(-1), d(-1) on average). The biomass was evaluated in terms of growth, accumulation of inert solids, and bacterial activity. The latter was measured through respirometric tests. The results showed that the suspended solids concentrations (SS) under equilibrium were proportional to the volumetric loading rates in both the experimental periods considered and a relationship between these two parameters was proposed. Also, the organic loading rates reached the same equilibrium value of 0.12 gCOD gTSS(-1) d(-1) in the two periods. Moreover, the system showed very limited sludge production under equilibrium conditions (0.12 gVSS gCOD(rem)(-1) and low biomass activity, although it readily responded to load variations.     

Optimization of operational factors of a membrane bioreactor with gravity drain.

A new membrane bioreactor with gravity drain for municipal wastewater treatment was tested and its operational factors were investigated in this study. These factors include pressure head, MLSS, aeration intensity (an air flow rate per unit floor area) and temperature. Results of batch experiments showed that a critical pressure head of the MBR was 0.85-1.5 m-H2O. At a pressure head of 0.85 m-H2O, statistical analysis of batch experiments showed that aeration intensity significantly affected membrane flux, and the MLSS had no impact on membrane flux under a temperature of 22.0 +/- 1.0 degrees C. Results of the long-term continuous experiment showed that temperature significantly affected membrane flux. The impact of temperature on membrane flux in this case was about 4-10 times of that analyzed by using a classical cake layer model. During this experiment, the average removal efficiencies of COD, BOD5 and NH4+-N were over 85%, 97% and 94%, respectively.     

Investigation of membrane fouling in ultrafiltration using model organic compounds.

Natural organic matter (NOM) is known to be the worst foulant in the membrane processes, but the complexities of NOM make it difficult to determine its effects on membrane fouling. Therefore, simple organic compounds (surrogates for NOM) were used in this research to investigate the fouling mechanisms in ultrafiltration. Previous research on NOM components in membrane processes indicated that polysaccharides formed an important part of the fouling cake. Three polysaccharides (dextran, alginic acid, and polygalacturonic acid) and a smaller carbohydrate (tannic acid) were evaluated for their removal in softening (the treatment process in the City of Austin). Two polysaccharides (dextran and alginic acid) were selected and further investigated for their effects on membrane fouling. The two raw organic waters (4 mg/L C) showed quite different patterns of flux decline indicating different fouling mechanisms. Softening pretreatment was effective to reduce flux decline of both waters. The SEM images of the fouled membrane clearly showed the shapes of deposited foulants. The high resolution results of the XPS spectra showed substantially different spectra of carbon, C(1s), in the membrane fouled by two raw organic waters. The XPS was beneficial in determining the relative composition of each fouling material on the membrane surface.     

Pilot-scale anaerobic submerged membrane bioreactor (AnSMBR) treating municipal wastewater: the fouling phenomenon and long-term operation

An anaerobic submerged membrane bioreactor (AnSMBR) on pilot-scale treating a mixture composed of municipal wastewater and glucose under mesophilic temperature conditions was operated for 206 days. The performance of the AnSMBR was evaluated at different fluxes, biomass concentrations and gas sparging velocities (GSV). GSV was used to control fouling. In addition, the AnSMBR was operated in cycles that included relaxation and backwashing phases. The increase in the transmembrane pressure (fouling rate) was measured under different operational conditions and was used to evaluate the stability of the process. The fouling rate could be controlled for a long period of time at a flux of 7 l m(-2) h(-1) with a GSV of 62 m/h and an average biomass concentration of 14.8 g TSS/L. The membrane was physically cleaned after 156 days of operation. The cleaning efficiency was almost 100% indicating that no irreversible fouling was developed inside the pores of the membrane. The COD removal efficiency was close to 90%. As in anaerobic processes, nutrients were not exposed to degradation and almost no pathogens were found in the effluent, hence the effluent could be used for irrigation in agriculture.     

Calibrating a side-stream membrane bioreactor using Activated Sludge Model No. 1.

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are attracting global interest but the mathematical modeling of the biological performance of MBRs remains very limited. This study focuses on the modeling of a side-stream MBR system using the Activated Sludge Model No. 1 (ASM1), and compares the results with the modeling of traditional activated sludge processes. ASM1 parameters relevant for the long-term biological behaviour in MBR systems were calibrated (i.e. Y(H) = 0.72 gCOD/gCOD, Y(A) = 0.25 gCOD/gN, b(H) = 0.25 d(-1), b(A) = 0.080 d(-1) and f(p) = 0.06), and generally agreed with the parameters in traditional activated sludge processes, with the exception that a higher autotrophic biomass decay rate was observed in the MBR. Influent wastewater characterization was proven to be a critical step in model calibration, and special care should be taken in characterizing the inert particulate COD (X(I)) concentration in the MBR influent. It appeared that the chemical-biological method was superior to the physical-chemical method. A sensitivity analysis for steady-state operation and DO dynamics suggested that the biological performance of the MBR system (the sludge concentration, effluent quality and the DO dynamics) are very sensitive to the parameters (i.e. Y(H), Y(A), b(H), b(A) micro(maxH) and micro(maxA), and influent wastewater components (X(I), S(s), X(s) and S(NH)).     

PAC-UF工艺的膜污染特性及膜污染物质研究

针对污水处理厂二级出水在超滤膜(UF)工艺和粉末活性炭-超滤(PAC-UF)工艺中的运行,分析粉末活性炭(PAC)对膜污染的影响,并采用三维荧光光谱分析等方法分析膜污染的主要成分。试验分析表明,两种工艺中UF膜的膜通量均呈下降趋势而后趋于平缓,但PAC-UF工艺的下降趋势相对缓慢,说明PAC可以延缓膜污染的形成,但无法阻止膜污染的发生。根据三维荧光的分析,二级出水中的主要污染物为富里酸类物质和腐殖酸类腐殖质,溶解性微生物代谢产物和腐殖酸类腐殖质是造成可逆污染的物质,该污染物通过物理反冲洗可以被大部分去除;通过对碱洗液和酸洗液的分析,推测在PAC-UF工艺中造成UF膜片不可逆污染的物质为酪氨酸类蛋白质、色氨酸类蛋白质和富里酸类物质,这三种有机物是造成UF膜片不可逆污染的主要原因。