Studies on effective treatment of waste water using submerged ceramic membrane bioreactor

Abstract

The present work focuses on water pollution control which is the important area of research under the current situation prevailing in our country. The Submerged Ceramic Membrane Bioreactor has been fabricated and studied for purification of wastewater. Tubular ceramic membranes of 600 nm pore size have been employed for filtration. Vacuum filtration has been used instead of pressurized filtration. The system is facilitated with aeration which is helpful in reducing the membrane fouling by partially scouring the membrane surface. Treatment performance of MBR in terms of parameters like Transmembrane pressure (TMP), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Dissolved Oxygen (DO) and turbidity has been investigated. The membranes are subjected to chemical cleaning after which there was drastic increase in permeate flux due to regeneration of the membrane surface. The mathematical models such as complete pore blocking model (CPPM) and standard pore blocking models (SPBM) are tested. The filtration data is found to fit CPPM mathematical model more accurately as compared to SPBM model which suggests that fouling is due to complete plugging of membrane pores. Properties of the permeate such as odorless, colorless, reduced COD, reduced turbidity and increased DO make the process desirable for various uses in domestic and industrial applications.