Application of Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Nanofiltration (NF) Processes for Desalination and Reuse of Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) Effluent as Irrigation and Process Water

Interest in reuse of process water from the food industry has reinforced the importance of controlling and monitoring the effectiveness and reliability of treatment systems regarding removal of organic matter and microorganisms. The ability of adenosine triphosphate bioluminescence, conductivity, turbidometry, absorbance, and multichannel fluorescence spectroscopy for indirectly monitoring the integrity of a reverse osmosis membrane when treating process water recovered from peeling in a shrimp processing line was evaluated. This study demonstrated that reverse osmosis was capable of removing bacteria (ca. 7 log CFU ml−1) to the levels required by the regulatory authorities for water recycling within the same food unit operation. Adenosine triphosphate and turbidometry showed a higher sensitivity for detecting compromising conditions at the treatment system (0.1% concentration of feed in permeate) and a better correlation with the aerobic count at lower levels than the other methods investigated. The sensitivity for assessing membrane integrity of conductivity and multichannel fluorescence was 1% of feed in permeate. Impact of feed variations was best leveled out in the permeates for turbidity measurements. Multichannel fluorescence spectroscopy may require laborious calibration procedures and expertise regarding data analysis and interpretation of results, which are not always available in food industries. Absorbance did not respond to changes in membrane integrity and was not well correlated to the aerobic count because of the poor sensitivity of this method for these purposes.

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Recycling of Reverse Osmosis Concentrates to the Membrane Bioreactor in the MBR-RO Process for Water Reuse: effect on mbr performances

Revue des sciences de l eau ◽

10.7202/1040057ar ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 1-10 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Thi Thu Nga Vu ◽

Manon Montaner ◽

Christelle Guigui

Keyword(s):

Organic Matter ◽

Reverse Osmosis ◽

Membrane Fouling ◽

Water Reuse ◽

High Performance ◽

Membrane Bioreactor ◽

Membrane System ◽

Size Exclusion ◽

Ro Concentrate ◽

The Impact

Wastewater effluents can be treated by an integrated membrane system combining membrane bioreactor (MBR) and reverse osmosis (RO) for effective removal of micropollutants in the field of high-quality water reuse. However, discharging the RO concentrate waste stream directly into the natural environment could lead to serious problems due to the toxic components contained in the concentrates (micropollutants, salts, organic matter). A possible solution could be the recirculation of RO concentrate waste to the MBR. However, such an operation should be studied in detail since the recirculation of non-biodegradable organic matter or high concentrations of salts and micropollutants could directly or indirectly contribute to MBR membrane fouling and modification of the biodegradation activity. In this context, the work reported here focused on the recirculation of such concentrates in an MBR, paying specific attention to MBR membrane fouling. Lab-scale experiments were performed on a continuous MBR-RO treatment line with RO concentrate recirculation. The main goal was to determine the recovery of the RO unit and of the global process that maintained good process performance in terms of biodegradation and MBR fouling. The results demonstrate that the impact of the toxic flow on activated sludge depends on the recovery of the RO step but the same trends were observed regardless of the organic matter and salt contents of the concentrates: the concentration of proteins increased slightly. Size-exclusion high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC-SEC) was employed to study the effects of RO concentrate on the production of protein-like soluble microbial products (SMPs) and demonstrated a significant peak of protein-like substances corresponding to 10-100 kDa and 100-1 000 kDa molecules in the supernatant. Thus a significant increase in the propensity for sludge fouling was observed, which could be attributed to the increased quantity of protein-like substances. Finally, the effect of the concentrate on sludge activity was studied and no significant effect was observed on biodegradation, indicating that the return of the concentrate to the MBR could be a good alternative.

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Technology feasibility and economic viability of an innovative integrated ceramic membrane bioreactor and reverse osmosis process for producing ultrapure water from municipal wastewater

Chemical Engineering Journal ◽

10.1016/j.cej.2019.122078 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 375 ◽

pp. 122078 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Siyu Wang ◽

Hang Liu ◽

Jun Gu ◽

Huifang Sun ◽

Meng Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Reverse Osmosis ◽

Membrane Bioreactor ◽

Municipal Wastewater ◽

Ceramic Membrane ◽

Economic Viability ◽

Ultrapure Water

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Performance of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis after membrane bioreactor for urban source-separated urine treatment and water reuse

10.5004/dwt.2017.21441 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 95 ◽

pp. 18-33 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Mathias Monnot ◽

Bénédicte Nguyen ◽

François Zaviska ◽

Geoffroy Lesage ◽

Marc Héran

Keyword(s):

Reverse Osmosis ◽

Water Reuse ◽

Membrane Bioreactor ◽

Urine Treatment

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Production of process water using integrated membrane processes

Chemical Papers ◽

10.2478/s11696-006-0076-y ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 60 (6) ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

K. Karakulski ◽

M. Gryta ◽

M. Sasim

Keyword(s):

Reverse Osmosis ◽

Membrane Fouling ◽

Tap Water ◽

Industrial Effluents ◽

Membrane Distillation ◽

Process Water ◽

Feed Water ◽

Reverse Osmosis Membrane ◽

Permeate Flux ◽

Membrane Processes

AbstractApplication of ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, membrane distillation, and integrated membrane processes for the preparation of process water from natural water or industrial effluents was investigated. A two-stage reverse osmosis plant enabled almost complete removal of solutes from the feed water. High-purity water was prepared using the membrane distillation. However, during this process a rapid membrane fouling and permeate flux decline was observed when the tap water was used as a feed. The precipitation of deposit in the modules was limited by the separation of sparingly soluble salts from the feed water in the nanofiltration. The combined reverse osmosis—membrane distillation process prevented the formation of salt deposits on the membranes employed for the membrane distillation. Ultrafiltration was found to be very effective removing trace amounts of oil from the feed water. Then the ultrafiltration permeate was used for feeding of the remaining membrane modules resulting in the total removal of oil residue contamination. The ultrafiltration allowed producing process water directly from the industrial effluents containing petroleum derivatives.

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Advanced Water Treatment of Non-nitrified Secondary Effluent with Tertiary Membrane Bioreactor and Reverse Osmosis Processes

Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation ◽

10.2175/193864713813716426 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2013 (8) ◽

pp. 6366-6376

Author(s):

Robert Morton ◽

Thomas Knapp ◽

Nick Smal ◽

Naoko Munakata ◽

Chi-Chung Tang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Treatment ◽

Reverse Osmosis ◽

Membrane Bioreactor ◽

Secondary Effluent

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Highly Efficient Reclamation of Meat-Processing Wastewater by Aerobic Hybrid Membrane Bioreactor-Reverse Osmosis Simulated System: A Comprehensive Economic and Environmental Study

ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering ◽

10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c05298 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (37) ◽

pp. 14207-14216

Author(s):

Hajar Abyar ◽

Mohsen Nowrouzi

Keyword(s):

Reverse Osmosis ◽

Membrane Bioreactor ◽

Hybrid Membrane ◽

Environmental Study ◽

Meat Processing ◽

Highly Efficient ◽

System A ◽

Simulated System

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Surface grafting of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) cross-linked with glutaraldehyde (GA) to improve resistance to fouling of aromatic polyamide thin film composite reverse osmosis membranes using municipal membrane bioreactor effluent

Water Practice & Technology ◽

10.2166/wpt.2019.047 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 614-624 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Godwill Kasongo ◽

Chad Steenberg ◽

Bradley Morris ◽

Gracia Kapenda ◽

Nurah Jacobs ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Surface Modification ◽

Reverse Osmosis ◽

Membrane Bioreactor ◽

Pure Water ◽

Water Flux ◽

Film Composite ◽

Thin Film Composite ◽

Flux Decline ◽

Pure Water Flux ◽

The Impact

Abstract Membrane surface modification is a favourable method to handle fouling during wastewater treatment processes. In this study, grafting of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) through cross-link with Glutaraldehyde was applied to a thin film composite reverse osmosis membrane to enhance the resistance to flux decline. The analytical analyses attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy were performed to evaluate the impact of surface modification. Biofouling using Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacterial solution and fouling tests using a bench scale reverse osmosis system with a simulated secondary effluent from a membrane bioreactor were used to assess the impact of the surface modification initiated on antifouling properties of the membrane. It was shown that the morphological structure and the chemical properties of the membrane were altered, whereas the pure water flux slightly decreased after modification. Although a slight decrease of salt rejection was observed, the membrane resistance to fouling improved and the biofouling model used revealed the anti-biofouling capacity of the membrane. The flux decline and flux recovery ratios improved with an increase in PVA concentration. The sterilization ratio increased from 33.8 to 36.8% and the pure water flux decline decreased from 46.04 to 25.94% after modification.

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