scholarly journals Membrane Filtration as Post-Treatment of Rotating Biological Contactor for Wastewater Treatment

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7287
Author(s):  
Sharjeel Waqas ◽  
Muhammad Roil Bilad ◽  
Nurul Huda ◽  
Noorfidza Yub Harun ◽  
Nik Abdul Hadi Md Nordin ◽  
...  

A rotating biological contactor (RBC) offers a low energy footprint but suffers from performance instability, making it less popular for domestic wastewater treatment. This paper presents a study on an RBC integrated with membrane technology in which membrane filtration was used as a post-treatment step (RBC–ME) to achieve enhanced biological performance. The RBC and RBC–ME systems were operated under different hydraulic retention times (HRTs) of 12, 18, 24, and 48 h, and the effects of HRT on biological performance and effluent filterability were assessed. The results show that RBC–ME demonstrates superior biological performance than the standalone RBC. The RBC–ME bioreactor achieved 87.9 ± 3.2% of chemical oxygen demand (COD), 98.9 ± 1.1% ammonium, 45.2 ± 0.7% total nitrogen (TN), and 97.9 ± 0.1% turbidity removals. A comparison of the HRTs showed that COD and TN removal efficiency was the highest at 48 h, with 92.4 ± 2.4% and 48.6 ± 1.3% removal efficiencies, respectively. The longer HRTs also lead to better RBC effluent filterability. The steady-state permeability increased respectively by 2.4%, 9.5%, and 19.1% at HRTs of 18, 24, and 48 h, compared to 12 h. Our analysis of membrane fouling shows that fouling resistance decreased at higher HRTs. Overall, RBC–ME offered a promising alternative for traditional suspended growth processes with higher microbial activity and enhanced biological performance, which is in line with the requirements of sustainable development and environment-friendly treatment.

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-53
Author(s):  
Sz. Gy. Szerencsés ◽  
S. Beszédes ◽  
Zs. László ◽  
G. Veréb ◽  
D. Szalay ◽  
...  

AbstractIn this study, statistical analysis was performed to investigate the influence of operational parameters based on experimental results. The research aimed to know whether a long-term discontinuous module vibration operation is possible without adversely affecting filtration efficiency. Polymer membranes were compared by surface characteristics with contact angle measurements and selected for further membrane filtration experiments for dairy wastewater treatment. The effect of the main operational parameters, membrane module vibration amplitude (Avibr.) and transmembrane pressure (TMP), was investigated using a vibratory shear enhanced processing (VSEP) module with ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes. Components of the permeates, including chemical oxygen demand (COD), were measured, and membrane rejections were calculated to compare with threshold limit values. The results suggest that proper combination of Avibr. and TMP could mitigate membrane fouling. However, discontinuous module vibration resulted in more clogged membrane with lower fluxes, but slightly higher rejections. We conclude that investigating the significance of operational parameters is necessary for a wider, more energy and environment-friendly application in wastewater treatment.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Roil Bilad

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) have recently become widely accepted as an advanced technology for treatment of domestic and industrial wastewaters. The objective of this review is to provide overview on MBR technology for wastewater treatment application. It includes discussions on the fundamental, core problems (membrane fouling), recent effective development approach (dynamic filtration systems) and future research direction of MBRs. Since MBRs integrate a conventional activated sludge process with membrane filtration, and both fundamental aspects are discussed first. Later, a comprehensive discussion about membrane fouling, the main problems in MBR, is provided, including fouling control strategies. The discussion on the MBR membranes and relation between membrane properties and MBR performance is also provided. This review also includes one of the most promising MBR technologies that specifically design to manage membrane fouling: dynamic filtration systems. Lastly, insight into an approach to address MBRs challenges and recent research and developments are provided.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-464
Author(s):  
PRIYANAND AGALE ◽  
PARAG SADGIR

Rural wastewater treatment is mostly ignored in developing and undeveloped countries. The most important barrier for addressing to this problem is cost of treatment and simplified technology. Aerobic Brickbat Grit Sand (ABGS) purifier consists of four stages. Wastewater flows gravitationally through partition walls in zigzag pattern with brick bats filter; Pebble sand filter and charcoal and grit filter which facilitate removal of contaminants from domestic wastewater. In the present study, experimental model for domestic wastewater treatment was setup in the Environmental Engineering laboratory at Government College of Engineering Aurangabad, Maharashtra. Physiochemical analysis was done in August and September of 2016 the percentage removal of contaminants results shows Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) 92% - 87%, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) 93 - 89%, Total Suspended Solids( TSS) 80 - 78% and Turbidity 95 - 85%. The process is considered eco-friendly and easy to install technology for domestic wastewater treatment with use of locally available material. ABGS purifier is decentralized approach of domestic wastewater treatment. Hence ABGS as an alternative solution to tackle over the problem of rural wastewater treatment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-112
Author(s):  
Sharjeel Waqas ◽  
Muhammad Roil Bilad ◽  
Zakaria B Man

Biological processes are extensively used for wastewater treatment because of low organic footprint, economically feasible, and high treatment efficiency. Rotating biological contactors (RBC), an attached growth biological process offers advantage of low operating cost, simple configuration and structure, reduced bionomical footprint and thus has been extensively employed for organics and nitrogen removal. In this study, RBC was used for the treatment of synthetic domestic wastewater operating at high hydraulic and organic loading rate to demonstrate the biological performance. The results showed that the RBC achieved a treatment efficiency for COD, ammonium, TN and turbidity of 70.2%, 95.2%, 70%, and 78.9 %, respectively. The efficient nitrogen removal and increased nitrate concentration signify the presence of nitrifying bacteria which actively degrade the nitrogen compounds through the nitrification process. Thus, this system is a sound alternative for both domestic and industrial wastewater treatment for decentralized applications.


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 477-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daiane Cristina de Oliveira Garcia ◽  
Liliane Lazzari Albertin ◽  
Tsunao Matsumoto

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the efficiency of a duckweed pond in the polishing of a stabilization pond effluent, as well as quantify its biomass production. Once an adequate destination is given to the produced biomass, the wastewater treatment plant can work in a sustainable and integrated way. Design/methodology/approach The duckweed pond consisted of a tank with volume 0.44 m3, operating in continuous flow with an outflow of 0.12 m3/day and hydraulic retention time of 3.8 days. Effluent samples were collected before and after the treatment, with analyzes made: daily-pH, dissolved oxygen and temperature; twice a week – total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and chemical oxygen demand (COD); and weekly – total solids (TS) and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5). The duckweeds were collected each for seven days for its production quantification. Findings The highest efficiency of TN, TP, COD, BOD5 and TS removal were of 74.67, 66.18, 88.12, 91.14 and 48.9 percent, respectively. The highest biomass production rate was 10.33 g/m2/day in dry mass. Research limitations/implications There was great variation in biomass production, which may be related to the stabilization pond effluent conditions. The evaluation of the effluent composition, which will be treated with duckweeds, is recommended. Practical implications The evaluated treatment system obtained positive results for the reduction in the analyzed variables concentration, being an efficient technology and with operational simplicity for the domestic effluent polishing. Originality/value The motivation of this work was to bring a simple system of treatment and to give value to a domestic wastewater treatment system in a way that, at the same time the effluent polluter level is reduced and it is also possible to produce biomass during the treatment process.


2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (7) ◽  
pp. 1403-1409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sher Jamal Khan ◽  
Aman Ahmad ◽  
Muhammad Saqib Nawaz ◽  
Nicholas P. Hankins

In this study, three laboratory scale submerged membrane bioreactors (MBRs) comprising a conventional MBR (C-MBR), moving bed MBR (MB-MBR) and anoxic-oxic MBR (A/O-MBR) were continuously operated with synthesized domestic wastewater (chemical oxygen demand, COD = 500 mg/L) for 150 days under similar operational and environmental conditions. Kaldnes® plastic media with 20% dry volume was used as a biofilm carrier in the MB-MBR and A/O-MBR. The treatment performance and fouling propensity of the MBRs were evaluated. The effect of cake layer formation in all three MBRs was almost the same. However, pore blocking caused a major difference in the resultant water flux. The A/O-MBR showed the highest total nitrogen and phosphorus (PO4-P) removal efficiencies of 83.2 and 69.7%, respectively. Due to the high removal of nitrogen, fewer protein contents were found in the soluble and bound extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) of the A/O-MBR. Fouling trends of the MBRs showed 12, 14 and 20 days filtration cycles for C-MBR, MB-MBR and A/O-MBR, respectively. A 25% reduction of the soluble EPS and a 37% reduction of the bound EPS concentrations in A/O-MBR compared with C-MBR was a major contributing factor for fouling retardation and the enhanced filtration capacity of the A/O-MBR.


2013 ◽  
Vol 68 (10) ◽  
pp. 2264-2270 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Zapater-Pereyra ◽  
F. van Dien ◽  
J. J. A. van Bruggen ◽  
P. N. L. Lens

A constructed wetroof (CWR) is defined in this study as the combination of a green roof and a constructed wetland: a shallow wastewater treatment system placed on the roof of a building. The foremost challenge of such CWRs, and the main aim of this investigation, is the selection of an appropriate matrix capable of assuring the required hydraulic retention time, the long-term stability and the roof load-bearing capacity. Six substrata were subjected to water dynamics and destructive tests in two testing-tables. Among all the materials tested, the substratum configuration composed of sand, light expanded clay aggregates, biodegradable polylactic acid beads together with stabilization plates and a turf mat is capable of retaining the water for approximately 3.8 days and of providing stability (stabilization plates) and an immediate protection (turf mat) to the system. Based on those results, a full-scale CWR was built, which did not show any physical deterioration after 1 year of operation. Preliminary wastewater treatment results on the full-scale CWR suggest that it can highly remove main wastewater pollutants (e.g. chemical oxygen demand, PO43−-P and NH4+-N). The results of these tests and practical design considerations of the CWR are discussed in this paper.


2002 ◽  
Vol 46 (9) ◽  
pp. 263-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Dama ◽  
J. Bell ◽  
K.M. Foxon ◽  
C.J. Brouckaert ◽  
T. Huang ◽  
...  

Large proportions of South Africans live in areas with inadequate sanitation and a poor infrastructure for waterborne sanitation. Service providers are looking for alternative wastewater treatment options. The anaerobic baffled reactor is being considered as a decentralised sanitation option in these areas. A 3,200 L reactor was built and is currently being evaluated at a wastewater treatment works. The reactor was built based on experiences gained from working with a laboratory reactor (10 L) and predicted flow patterns observed on a computational fluid dynamics model. The design and construction of the reactor will be discussed in this paper. The feed to the reactor consists of screen degritted sewage and the flow to the reactor is maintained by means of a programmable logic controller. The pilot-plant layout is discussed in this paper. Samples are analysed for chemical oxygen demand, pH, alkalinity, ammonia, phosphorus, solids and ash content. Reductions of between 70 and 80% are obtained for COD and the pH values for the effluent samples are within the discharge limits.


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