title: Anaerobic treatment of low-strength wastewater: a comparison between single and staged anaerobic fluidized bed membrane bioreactors.
abstract: Performance of a single anaerobic fluidized membrane bioreactor (AFMBR) was compared with that of a staged anaerobic fluidized membrane bioreactor system (SAF-MBR) that consisted of an anaerobic fluidized bed bioreactor (AFBR) followed by an AFMBR. Both systems were fed with an equal COD mixture (200mg/L) of acetate and propionate at 25°C. COD removals of 93-96% were obtained by both systems, independent of the hydraulic retention times (HRT) of 2-4h. Over more than 200d of continuous operation, trans-membrane pressure (TMP) in both systems was less than 0.2bar without significant membrane fouling as a result of the scouring of membrane surfaces by the moving granular activated carbon particles. Results of bulk liquid suspended solids, extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), and soluble microbial products (SMP) analyses also revealed no significant differences between the two systems, indicating the single AFMBR is an effective alternative to the SAF-MBR system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Inha University, Namgu, Inharo 100, Incheon, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: jhb@inha.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Jaeho
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Inha University, Namgu, Inharo 100, Incheon, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Chungheon
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Inha University, Namgu, Inharo 100, Incheon, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Eunyoung
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Inha University, Namgu, Inharo 100, Incheon, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jeonghwan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Inha University, Namgu, Inharo 100, Incheon, Republic of Korea; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Perry L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: McCarty
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis; D001704:Biopolymers / Q000032:analysis; D019149:Bioreactors / Q000382:microbiology*; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000302:isolation & purification; D011312:Pressure; D013997:Time Factors; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D001704:Biopolymers; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D009930:Organic Chemicals; D062065:Wastewater
keywords: Anaerobic; Fluidized-bed; Single-stage membrane bioreactor; Staged membrane bioreactor