Performance of an activated sludge followed by membrane process (AS-MP) treating simulated industrial wastewaters: effects of operating factors and feed characteristics

S Rahimi,A A Zinatizadeh,S Zinadini,A Asadi,P Mohammadi

doi:10.1007/s13201-020-01285-1

S Rahimi, A A Zinatizadeh + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13201-020-01285-1

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Abstract

The main aim of the present study is to determine the optimum operating conditions for different feed compositions with less irreversible membrane fouling in an activated sludge followed by membrane process (AS-MP). In this regard, three different wastewaters with different BOD5/COD ratios (0.83 for soft drink, 0.63 for pineapple fruit juice and 0.36 for amoxicillin) as an index of biodegradability were selected. The AS-MP system was operated with biomass concentration of 7000–8000 mg/l and different hydraulic retention times (HRTs) in the range of 4–20 h. The optimal HRT was decreased as BOD5/COD ratio was increased. In order to investigate fouling behavior of membranes in the AS-MP, a commercial polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) microfiltration (MF) membrane and high-performance synthetic ZnFe2O4/SiO2 embedded polyether sulfone (PES) ultrafiltration (UF) membrane were applied. As a result, the UF membrane indicated the highest flux recovery ratio (FRR) for pineapple fruit juice wastewater relative to the other wastewaters. Soft drink wastewater had the maximum permeability and FRR for MF membrane due to low turbidity of the feed and low interaction with MF membrane composition, whereas this wastewater showed a lower permeability and FRR in the UF membrane, implying an effective interaction between the residual soluble microbial products and the UF membrane composition. Both membranes showed almost the same performance for amoxicillin wastewater.

Highlights

Industrial wastewater is one of the significant sources of environment pollution that wastewater treatment should be designed especially for the particular type of produced effluent (Shi and Qian 2009)
For pineapple fruit juice wastewater, despite the prepared UF membrane had lower Jfeed at higher operating pressure relative to the MF membrane, it is preferred for pineapple fruit juice wastewater due to its remarkable high flux recovery ratio (FRR) which is along with less operational cost for the membrane cleaning
The optimal hydraulic retention times (HRTs) obtained for soft drink, pineapple fruit juice and amoxicillin wastewaters was 4, 8 and 16 h, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Industrial wastewater is one of the significant sources of environment pollution that wastewater treatment should be designed especially for the particular type of produced effluent (Shi and Qian 2009) Numerous treatment methods such as biological systems (Pirsaheb et al 2015; Amini et al.2013; Asadi et al 2012a, b; Pirsaheb et al 2009), photocatalytic degradation (Shahrezaei et al 2012), coagulation and electrocoagulation (Abbasi et al 2020; Zinatizadeh et al 2017; Birjandi et al 2013), adsorption process (Sharafi et al 2015) and membrane technology (Gholami et al 2018; Zinadini et al 2017; Rahimi et al 2016; Abou-Elela and ElKhateeb 2015) have been used to remove pollutants from different industrial effluents. Some of the advantages of MBR are high biomass concentrations, less space requirement rather than traditional systems, lower hydraulic retention time, lower biosolids, high effluent quality, good disinfection capability and higher volumetric loading (Shon et al 2011)

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