Woven Fabric Bioreactor (WFBR) as the Filter Material for Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

Conventional and modified membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are effective increasingly used in small sized wastewater treatment plant. However, their widespread applications are hindered by their elevated energy consumption and the high costs of investment for the membrane modules. In this study, we investigated a modified an improved MBR system that utilized a cost effective woven fabric instead of nonwoven as the filter material in MBR modules. The woven fabric bioreactor (WFBR) system was operated in a continuous mode at HRT from 33 to 12h. Under the operational conditions of BOD loading rates from 0.12 to 0.28 kg BOD/kg MLSS /d, the WFBR system was able to reduce up 93.57% COD. The 38μm woven fabric performed well in solid-liquid separator, with an average suspended solids retention of 99.47% at MLSS of 4710~9951 mg/L. The WFBR system eliminated suction pumping by using a gravity head in the membrane filtration of the effluent over the entire operational period of 60 d.