title: Hollow fiber vs. flat sheet MBR for the treatment of high strength stabilized landfill leachate.
abstract: The Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) technology is increasingly becoming a prominent process in the treatment of high-strength wastewater such as leachate resulting from the decomposition of waste in landfills. This study presents a performance comparative assessment of flat sheet and hollow fiber membranes in bioreactors for the treatment of relatively stable landfill leachate with the objective of defining guidelines for pilot/full scale plants. For this purpose, a laboratory scale MBR system was constructed and operated to treat a leachate with Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) (3900-7800mg/L), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5) (∼440-1537mg/L), Total Phosphorus (TP) (∼10-59mg/L), Phosphate (PO4(3)(-)) (5-58mg/L), Total Nitrogen (TN) (1500-5200mg/L), and ammonium (NH4(+)) (1770-4410mg/L). Both membranes achieved comparable BOD (92.2% vs. 93.2%) and TP (79.4% vs. 78.5%) removals. Higher PO4(3)(-) removal efficiency or percentage (87.3% vs. 81.3%) and slightly higher, but not statistically significant, COD removal efficiency were obtained with the hollow fiber membrane (71.4% vs. 68.5%). On the other hand, the flat sheet membrane achieved significantly higher TN and NH4(+) removal efficiencies (61.2% vs. 49.4% and 63.4% vs. 47.8%, respectively), which may be attributed to the less frequent addition of NaOCl compared to the hollow fiber system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, American University of Beirut, Bliss Street, PO Box 11-0236, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hashisho
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, American University of Beirut, Bliss Street, PO Box 11-0236, Beirut, Lebanon. Electronic address: mfadel@aub.edu.lb.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: El-Fadel
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, American University of Beirut, Bliss Street, PO Box 11-0236, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Al-Hindi
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, American University of Beirut, Bliss Street, PO Box 11-0236, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Salam
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, American University of Beirut, Bliss Street, PO Box 11-0236, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Alameddine
mesh_terms: D019149:Bioreactors; D005374:Filtration / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000032:analysis; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000032:analysis; D064091:Waste Disposal Facilities; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D010758:Phosphorus; D009584:Nitrogen
keywords: Flat sheet; Hollow fiber; Membrane bioreactor; Stabilized leachate