Treatment of textile wastewater using combined anaerobic moving bed biofilm reactor and powdered activated carbon-aerobic membrane reactor

Abstract

In this study, treatment of textile wastewater using sequencing anaerobic moving bed biofilm reactor (AnMBBR) and powdered activated carbon – aerobic membrane bioreactor (PAC-AeMBR) was investigated. MBBR was composed by an anaerobic bioreactor with a biocarrier K1 with a filling ratio of 40% (v:v) and operated with 5 different aeration rates (0–0.55 m3air/m3reactor.min), at a constant HRT of 6 h to evaluate the effect of oxygen on AnMBBR system. The AnMBBR effluent was fed to the PAC-AeMBR for further treatment. In the AnMBBR operation, the adverse effect of aeration on anaerobic color removal was observed when ORP values increased over − 300 mV corresponding to aeration rates over 0.019 m3air/m3reactor.min, showing high toleration of biofilm layer. Limited aerated MBBR pretreatment provided long-term operation of MBR by decreasing frequency of membrane fouling. The relative abundance of EPS-producing bacteria namely Alphaproteobacteria (68%) was remarkably high in PAC-AeMBR. Considering the obtained results, it was concluded that the AnMBBR and PAC-AeMBR systems with high removals presented itself as a stable system.