Box-Behnken response surface approach to identify factors affecting membrane fouling in a hybrid membrane bioreactor treating domestic sewage.

Abstract

The effect of hydraulic retention time (HRT) and sludge retention time (SRT) on extracellular polymer substrate (EPS) content and resistance of a hybrid membrane bioreactor (HMBR) treating domestic sewage was analyzed by Box-Behnken response surface methodology. The quadratic response surface model demonstrated significant effects of both HRT and SRT on EPS content (both P value < 0.05), SRT on membrane resistance (P value = 0.0119), and their interaction was significant (P value = 0.0273) for EPS but not membrane resistance (P value = 0.0609). Model optimization indicates that the optimal conditions for the HMBR to control membrane fouling were an HRT of 10 h and SRT of 30 days. Under these optimal conditions, both the EPS content and the predicted membrane resistance closely matched the actual average value with the error about 8%. Thus, the feasibility of applying response surface methodology to an HMBR for treating domestic sewage was demonstrated. According to the detection result of the three-dimensional fluorescence (excitation-emission matrix), humic acid-like and fulvic acid-like substances gain much higher levels in the suspended carriers than those in the membrane and sludge, suggesting that these are key components of the membrane pollutants. Graphical abstract .