Development of integrated membrane bioreactor and numerical modeling to mitigate fouling and reduced energy consumption in pharmaceutical wastewater treatment

a submerged membrane bioreactor was used to treat the effluent of a pharmaceutical wastewater treatment system, the treated water is rich in ammonia nitrogen and organic compounds (NH4-N, averaged in 78.1 mg/L; COD, averaged in 189.5 mg/L), the final effluent of membrane bioreactor was stably below 50 mg/L COD and 40 mg/L NH4-N respectively, the activity of nitrifying bacteria was inhibited by high concentrations of organic compounds and ammonia nitrogen, a rapid declination of filtration was probably resulted form high concentrations of organic compounds and biomass.

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Performance evaluation of a novel reciprocation membrane bioreactor (rMBR) for enhanced nutrient removal in wastewater treatment: a comparative study

Water Science & Technology ◽

10.2166/wst.2015.267 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 72 (6) ◽

pp. 917-927 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Jaeho Ho ◽

Shaleena Smith ◽

Gyu Dong Kim ◽

Hyung Keun Roh

Keyword(s):

Wastewater Treatment ◽

Energy Consumption ◽

Membrane Bioreactor ◽

Membrane Surface ◽

Operating Performance ◽

Specific Energy Consumption ◽

Treatment Plant ◽

Pilot Scale ◽

Reciprocating Motion ◽

Membrane Cleaning

This study compared and evaluated the performance of a conventional membrane bioreactor (MBR) and a novel reciprocation MBR (rMBR) which used mechanical membrane reciprocation in place of membrane air scouring in pilot-scale tests. Each system was independently operated for 280 days at a local wastewater treatment plant for a parallel assessment of operating performance. The rMBR was found to be more effective than the MBR with regard to operating performance and energy consumption. Inertial forces created by the reciprocating motion shook foulants from the membrane surface. In addition, because of the looseness of the fibers, they moved relative to each other during reciprocation thus preventing sludge clogging inside the fiber bundle. Because the rMBR does not use aeration for membrane cleaning, the membrane tank in the rMBR maintained anoxic conditions, allowing endogenous denitrification in the membrane tank. The rMBR permeate contained an average of 1.7 mg/L total nitrogen (TN) with less than 1 mg/L NO3-N, while the TN concentration in the MBR permeate averaged 5 mg/L with 3.5 mg/L NO3-N. The specific energy consumption for membrane reciprocation in the rMBR was 0.064 kWh/m3, while that for air scouring in the MBR was 0.19 kWh/m3.

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Pharmaceutical wastewater treatment using membrane bioreactor-ozonation system

Water and Environment Journal ◽

10.1111/wej.12222 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

pp. 57-63 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Hossein Shahbeig ◽

Mohammad Reza Mehrnia ◽

Ahmad Reza Mohammadi ◽

Pegah Eivanpoor Moghaddam ◽

Mohammad Reza Rouini

Keyword(s):

Wastewater Treatment ◽

Membrane Bioreactor ◽

Pharmaceutical Wastewater

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Alternate anoxic/aerobic operation for nitrogen removal in a membrane bioreactor for municipal wastewater treatment

Water Science & Technology ◽

10.2166/wst.2011.755 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 64 (8) ◽

pp. 1730-1735 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

G. Guglielmi ◽

G. Andreottola

Keyword(s):

Wastewater Treatment ◽

Energy Consumption ◽

Nitrogen Removal ◽

Membrane Bioreactor ◽

Municipal Wastewater ◽

Pilot Scale ◽

Ammonia Nitrogen ◽

Municipal Wastewater Treatment ◽

Biological Phosphorus Removal ◽

The Impact

A large pilot-scale membrane bioreactor (MBR) with a conventional denitrification/nitrification scheme for municipal wastewater treatment has been run for one year under two different aeration strategies in the oxidation/nitrification compartment. During the first five months air supply was provided according to the dissolved-oxygen set-point and the system run as a conventional pre-denitrification MBR; then, an intermittent aeration strategy based on effluent ammonia nitrogen was adopted in the aerobic compartment in order to assess the impact on process performances in terms of N and P removal, energy consumption and sludge reduction. The experimental inferences show a significant improvement of the effluent quality as COD and total nitrogen, both due to a better utilization of the denitrification potential which is a function of the available electron donor (biodegradable COD) and electron acceptor (nitric nitrogen); particularly, nitrogen removal increased from 67% to 75%. At the same time, a more effective biological phosphorus removal was observed as a consequence of better selection of denitrifying phosphorus accumulating organisms (dPAO). The longer duration of anoxic phases also reflected in a lower excess sludge production (12% decrease) compared with the standard pre-denitrification operation and in a decrease of energy consumption for oxygen supply (about 50%).

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