Abstract
The performance of a lab-scale anaerobic membrane distillation bioreactor (An-MDBR) system was evaluated treating high-strength synthetic textile wastewater with a Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) concentration of 3000 ± 130 mg/L. A novel hybrid process incorporating membrane distillation in a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor was developed at mesophilic and thermophilic temperatures and instigated. The An-MDBR process attained 99.99% inorganic salt rejection irrespective of the operating temperatures and high initial flux between 5.9 and 11.5 L/m2·h (LMH) at 35–50 °C. Removal efficiencies (%) of COD and color were in the range of 40–69% and 43–74%, respectively in an anaerobic bioreactor, whereas overall MD performance was in the range of 99 ± 0.9% for COD as well as color. Among the four temperatures, 40 °C exhibited the optimum performance for 47 days with the average COD and color removal efficiencies of 99 ± 0.9%, respectively with steady biogas production. Furthermore, the conductivity of An-MDBR was maintained at 4.0 ± 0.5 mS/cm using low-cost Woven Fiber Microfiltration (WF-MF) coupled with An-MDBR and the flux was optimized at 2 LMH. The removal efficiency of NH4+1-N was greater in the range of 89 to 93% at mesophilic temperatures while smaller in the range of 79 to 86% at thermophilic temperatures by maintaining pH between 6.8 and 7.2. The concentration of PO4−3-P in the permeate water was near zero, showing that PO4−3 can be rejected completely by the MD membrane. Due to membrane biofouling and scaling, wetting was observed for different durations at different temperatures.
Published Version
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