Abstract
Several water treatment techniques have been combined using the sequencing batch reactor with the membrane bioreactor for addressing water pollution. However, cleaning of the membrane is dependent on the approach involved as well as the operating conditions. In the present study, the sequencing-batch membrane bioreactor was used to treat real mixed municipal wastewater. The pollutant removal and membrane filtration performances were examined. The results show that the average removal rates of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen, NH3-N, total phosphorus, and turbidity were 90.75, 63.52, 92.85, 87.58, and 99.48%, respectively, when the system was in continuous operation for 95 days. The membrane had a significant effect on COD and turbidity removal and provided stable performances for nitrogen and phosphorus removal. By observing the appearance of the membrane modules before and after the cleaning operation, it was concluded that the deposited sludge and granular sediment on the membrane surface can be effectively removed by hydraulic cleaning. In addition, recovery of membrane filtration performance to 60% of that of a new membrane can be achieved. Furthermore, we found that different sequences and duration of cleaning have different effects on the recovery of membrane filtration performance.
Highlights
With the growing shortage of water resources and the progressive demand for energy conservation and emissions reductions on a global scale, advanced treatment and recycling of municipal wastewater are important measures in reducing environmental pollution and saving operating costs
This study aims to evaluate the advantages of the traditional sequencing batch reactor (SBR) and membrane bioreactor (MBR), while enhancing the performance of nitrogen and phosphorus removal from mixed municipal wastewater
The process of membrane separation strengthened the performance of the system for chemical oxygen demand (COD) and turbidity removal and improved the stability of effluent quality of the system, whose alternating anaerobic and aerobic operation provided a selective advantage for the metabolic growth of phosphorus accumulating organisms (Winkler et al ; Xu et al ), and the total phosphorus removal effect of the system was good
Summary
With the growing shortage of water resources and the progressive demand for energy conservation and emissions reductions on a global scale, advanced treatment and recycling of municipal wastewater are important measures in reducing environmental pollution and saving operating costs. Due to the high flexibility in operation, the SBMBR can improve the hydraulic conditions of the membrane filtration process, change the characteristics of the mixture, and maintain a lower membrane fouling rate (Seo et al ; Zhang et al ; Yuan et al ). Membrane fouling leads to increased frequency of membrane cleaning, shortening the service life and resulting in higher operating costs (Drews ; Rodríguez-Hernández et al ) It is of great significance for the longterm stable operation of the SBMBR to study the change trend, pollution characteristics and cleaning method of TMP in the intermittent filtration process. This study aims to evaluate the advantages of the traditional SBR and MBR, while enhancing the performance of nitrogen and phosphorus removal from mixed municipal wastewater. The membrane module used in the experiment consisted of a total of six PVDF hollow fibre microfiltration membranes with a pore size of 0.1 μm, and a single-membrane surface area of 0.60 m2
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