title: Effect of granular activated carbon addition on the effluent properties and fouling potentials of membrane-coupled expanded granular sludge bed process.
abstract: To mitigate membrane fouling of membrane-coupled anaerobic process, granular activated carbon (GAC: 50 g/L) was added into an expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB). A short-term ultrafiltration test was investigated for analyzing membrane fouling potential and underlying fouling mechanisms. The results showed that adding GAC into the EGSB not only improved the COD removal efficiency, but also alleviated membrane fouling efficiently because GAC could help to reduce soluble microbial products, polysaccharides and proteins by 26.8%, 27.8% and 24.7%, respectively, compared with the control system. Furthermore, excitation emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy analysis revealed that GAC addition mainly reduced tryptophan protein-like, aromatic protein-like and fulvic-like substances. In addition, the resistance distribution analysis demonstrated that adding GAC primarily decreased the cake layer resistance by 53.5%. The classic filtration mode analysis showed that cake filtration was the major fouling mechanism for membrane-coupled EGSB process regardless of the GAC addition.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, 73 Huanghe Road, Nangang District, Harbin 150090, PR China.
authors.forename: An
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, 73 Huanghe Road, Nangang District, Harbin 150090, PR China. Electronic address: hitliangheng@163.com.
authors.forename: Heng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, 73 Huanghe Road, Nangang District, Harbin 150090, PR China.
authors.forename: Fangshu
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, 73 Huanghe Road, Nangang District, Harbin 150090, PR China.
authors.forename: Langming
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, 73 Huanghe Road, Nangang District, Harbin 150090, PR China.
authors.forename: Guibai
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Engineering, University of Technology, P.O. Box 123, Broadway, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia.
authors.forename: Huu Hao
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Ngo
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Engineering, University of Technology, P.O. Box 123, Broadway, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia.
authors.forename: Wenshan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Guo
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D057919:Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; D019149:Bioreactors; D002606:Charcoal / Q000737:chemistry*; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008956:Models, Chemical; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000032:analysis; D012722:Sewage / Q000382:microbiology*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D014462:Ultrafiltration / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011134:Polysaccharides; D012722:Sewage; D002606:Charcoal
keywords: Granular activated carbon; Membrane fouling; Membrane resistance; Membrane-coupled anaerobic process; Soluble microbial products