Behaviour of fouling-related components in an enhanced membrane bioreactor using marine activated sludge.
This paper presents an experimental study on behaviour of fouling-related components during saline wastewater treatments in an enhanced mesoporous membrane bioreactor (MBR) system integrated with a biological contact oxidation reactor (BCOR). By monitoring the transmembrane pressure, the MBR system without BCOR assistance was observed to get membrane fouling easier during saline wastewater treatments. Typically, the concentration of total EPS gradually increased in the MBR system over the operation time, while no significant change in its concentration was observed in the BCOR-MBR system. The concentration of total SMP in the MBR system reached high levels earlier than the BCOR-MBR system, causing a significant membrane fouling. Besides, unlike a simple MBR system, the BCOR-MBR system produced more soluble microbial by-product-like components (simple) instead of fulvic acid-like or humic acid-like components (complex) during the saline wastewater treatments, resulting in higher resistance to a membrane fouling.
Department of Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology (Weihai), Weihai 264209, China; School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney 2006, Australia.
Songwen
S
Tan
Department of Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology (Weihai), Weihai 264209, China. Electronic address: lwg123hit@gmail.com.
Weiguo
W
Li
D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D057219:Biofouling; D019149:Bioreactors; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D012722:Sewage / Q000382:microbiology*; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods*; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry
D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D012722:Sewage; D062065:Wastewater
Extracellular polymeric substances; Membrane fouling; Saline wastewater treatment; Soluble microbial products