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Municipal wastewater treatment and fouling in microalgal-activated sludge membrane bioreactor: Cultivation in raw and treated wastewater

Najafi Chaleshtori, S ; Sharif University of Technology | 2022

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1016/j.jwpe.2022.103069
  3. Publisher: Elsevier Ltd , 2022
  4. Abstract:
  5. Since the advent of conventional activated sludge biological treatment plants, their low efficiency in nitrogen and phosphorus removal has become a significant concern. Therefore, in this study, the performance of microalgal-activated sludge membrane bioreactor (MAS-MBR) as a self-biological treatment or as a post-treatment for conventional biological treatments was investigated. A continuous MAS-MBR with two ratios of algae/sludge (only microalgae and 5:1) was used to treat raw and treated wastewater. The optimum case was achieved with the cultivation of mixed algae/sludge in raw wastewater (R2 case). In this case, the ammonium and phosphorus removal efficiencies were 94.36 ± 3.5 and 88.37 ± 3 %, respectively. Furthermore, the highest oxygen production rate (OPR) and oxygen uptake rate (OUR) values were obtained in this case (145.58 ± 3 and 68.43 ± 1.5 mgO2/lit.d, respectively). In addition, membrane fouling was adversely increased in R2 compared with other cases, indicating the necessity of membrane cleaning for high-performance bioreactors in nutrient removal. Transmembrane pressure (TMP) jump in R2 was captured after 14 days, while the results supported that the membrane fouling was influenced by raised production of carbohydrate fraction of soluble microbial products (SMPc) and protein fraction of extracellular polymeric substances (EPSp) at first and last stages, respectively. Therefore, although the MAS-MBR is a potential candidate as a self-biological treatment, the membrane fouling is high in this case. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd
  6. Keywords:
  7. Membrane bioreactor ; Membrane fouling ; Microalgal-activated sludge ; Nutrient removal
  8. Source: Journal of Water Process Engineering ; Volume 49 , 2022 ; 22147144 (ISSN)
  9. URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S221471442200513X