Abstract
Phenolic wastewater was treated using anaerobic submerged membrane bioreactor (ASMBR). Effect of different solids retention times on MBR performance was studied. Various ratios of carbon to nitrogen were used in the synthetic wastewaters. During the operation, phenol concentration of feed was changed from 100 to 1000 mg L−1. Phenol concentration was increased stepwise over the first 30 days and kept constant at 1000 mg L−1, thereafter. For the first 100 days, a chemical oxygen demand (COD) to N ratio of 100:5.0 was used and this resulted in phenol and COD removal more than 99 and 95%, respectively. However, the ammonium removal decreased from 95 to 40% by increasing the phenol concentration of feed, from 100 to 1000 mg L−1. For the last 25 days, a COD to N ratio of 100:2.1 was used due to the ammonium accumulation in the ASMBR. This led to the complete ammonium removal and no ammonium was detected in the ASMBR permeate. These results suggest that in the ASMBR at high phenol loading of 1000 mg L−1, COD to N ratio of the phenolic wastewater must be 100:2.1 for ammonium removal, while at low phenol loading, COD to N ratio of 100:5.0 can be used.
Highlights
IntroductionMost of them contain ammonia [3, 4], phenolic and nitrogenous compounds at high concentrations, e.g. wastewaters from coke industries and refineries [5, 6]
Many industrial wastewaters are produced yearly in the world [1, 2]
The membrane separation processes can be used in the different process including gas separation [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20], pervaporation [21,22,23,24,25,26,27], filtration in different configuration hollow fiber membrane contactor [28,29,30,31,32,33]
Summary
Most of them contain ammonia [3, 4], phenolic and nitrogenous compounds at high concentrations, e.g. wastewaters from coke industries and refineries [5, 6]. Treatment methods such as liquid–liquid extraction [7], ultrasound [8], adsorption [9], membrane processes [10] and biological treatment methods have been used for phenolic wastewater renovation. Biodegradation seems to be a suitable treatment method for phenol and ammonium removal due to the neutral compounds produced in this process [34]. In Rezakazemi et al Chemistry Central Journal (2018) 12:79
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