Abstract
The pulp and paper wastewater contains various organic and inorganic compounds in considerable amounts. Membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology has been used extensively for various industrial wastewater treatments due to its ability to produce appropriate effluent according to water quality regulations. Pulp and paper wastewater can be successfully treated by MBR in different conditions according to the wastewater and MBR characteristics. However, a major drawback in the use of MBR is membrane fouling, which leads to the reduction of effluent permeate flux. Fouling factors need to be considered because they are the major problems affecting the MBR performance. Besides, the performance of MBR can be increased by wastewater pretreatment methods and addition of a fouling reducer. In this paper, the application of aerobic and anaerobic MBR for pulp and paper wastewater treatment and membrane fouling has been reviewed. It has been found that the advantages of MBR over conventional biological treatment processes have made this technology popular for pulp and paper wastewater treatment.
Highlights
The wastewater produced by industry has a significant impact on the environment
Application of Anaerobic Membrane bioreactor (MBR) The study has been done on a full-scale activated sludge (AS) plant compared to an MBR with flat sheets membranes
The results showed that, for paper mill wastewater, after anaerobic biotreatment, if there is no need for excellent effluent quality in terms of suspended solids, the replacement of the AS by the MBR would not be strongly justified, mainly because of maintenance cost.[33]
Summary
The wastewater produced by industry has a significant impact on the environment. Factories commonly produce great amounts of wastewater, which has a high chemical oxygen demand (COD), toxicity, a low biodegradability and more than 700 organic and inorganic compounds (Table 1) depending on some factors, such as raw material type and production process. There are various special types of pollutants in this wastewater, including lignins, phenols, chlorides, stilbenes, dioxins, furans and sulphur compounds. After primary metals and chemicals industries, the pulp and paper industry produces the third largest amount of wastewater.[1,2,3] The water used in pulp and paper factories ranges from 5-100 m3/t depending on the characteristics of the raw material, type of produced paper and the value of water reuse.[4]
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