Abstract
The reduction of membrane fouling in membrane bioreactors (MBRs) by the addition of two modified starches (i.e. CGMS and MGMS) was investigated. The fouling rate in the CGMS-added MBR was approximately eight times and four times lower than that in the control MBR at fluxes of 40 L/m2 h and 20 L/m2 h, respectively. In contrast, the MBR with added MGMS demonstrated improved performance only in short-term filtration. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of membrane pore blocking, the gel layer and the cake layer were conducted. The results demonstrated that gel and cake resistance was reduced noticeably in starch-added MBRs. Compared to the control MBR, the concentration of macromolecules with MW ≧ 100 kDa in the supernatant of both CGMS- and MGMS-added MBRs was significantly lower. The CGMS-MBR demonstrated a higher porosity of fouling layers than the control and MGMS-MBRs, which was attributed to the bigger floc size and lower fractal dimension of the floc caused by the addition of CGMS. The detachment of large flocs from the membrane surface also contributed to the lower fouling rate in the CGMS-MBR.
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