title: In-situ utilization of generated electricity in an electrochemical membrane bioreactor to mitigate membrane fouling.
abstract: How to mitigate membrane fouling remains a critical challenge for widespread application of membrane bioreactors. Herein, an antifouling electrochemical membrane bioreactor (EMBR) was developed based on in-situ utilization of the generated electricity for fouling control. In this system, a maximum power density of 1.43 W/m(3) and a current density of 18.49 A/m(3) were obtained. The results demonstrate that the formed electric field reduced the deposition of sludge on membrane surface by enhancing the electrostatic repulsive force between them. The produced H2O2 at the cathode also contributed to the fouling mitigation by in-situ removing the membrane foulants. In addition, 93.7% chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal and 96.5% NH4(+)-N removal in average as well as a low effluent turbidity of below 2 NTU were achieved, indicating a good wastewater treatment performance of the EMBR. This work provides a proof-of-concept study of an antifouling MBR with high wastewater treatment efficiency and electricity recovery, and implies that electrochemical control might provide another promising avenue to in-situ suppress the membrane fouling in MBRs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Yun-Kun
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wen-Wei
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Guo-Ping
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.forename: Bing-Jing
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Han-Qing
authors.initials: HQ
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D057919:Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; D019149:Bioreactors / Q000382:microbiology*; D004560:Electricity; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D012722:Sewage / Q000382:microbiology*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D012722:Sewage
keywords: Electrochemical MBR; Hydrogen peroxide; Membrane bioreactors; Membrane fouling