Antifouling behaviour of a photocatalytic modified membrane in a moving bed bioreactor for wastewater treatment

Abstract

Membrane fouling is a major bottleneck in the application of moving bed-membrane bioreactors. A novel moving bed-UV-photocatalytic-modified membrane bioreactor (MB-UVPMBR) was proposed for efficient wastewater treatment and membrane fouling mitigation. Herein, the modified membrane served as photocatalysis and membrane processes simultaneously. Compared with the conventional moving bed-membrane bioreactor (MBMBR) and MB-UVPMBR without UV light irradiation, the MB-UVPMBR exhibited good effluent quality and anti-fouling ability with UV light irradiation. The cake layer resistance was reduced by 83%, and the pore blockage resistance was reduced by 88%, thus reducing the total membrane filtration resistance. The hydrophilicity of the modified membrane helped mitigate foulant deposition and cake layer formation on the membrane surface. The modified membrane effectively reduced the contents of soluble microbial products and foulants deposited on the membrane surface by photocatalysis. Additionally, the fouled membrane could be effectively regenerated by self-cleaning.