Sludge production in membrane bioreactors under different conditions

With membrane bioreactors, the production of surplus sludge is lower than with conventional activated sludge systems, a fact that has been confirmed in a large number of analyses. There is, however, no consensus about the dimension of the reactions and their respective causes. In order to examine these, at the University of Hanover a pilot plant with a capacity of 220 l was run for one year without any extraction of surplus sludge. The plant was started with 2 g MLSS/l; after one year, this value had risen to approximately 18 g MLSS/l. In order to be able to set the plant for different sludge loads (0.04 to 0.2 kg COD/(kg MLSS · d)), the wastewater was artificially stocked up. The emerging result was that in contrast to conventional systems the sludge growth was lower, but still continuously existing. Then, comparisons with theoretical approaches were run – among others with the ASM1-Model – which confirmed the findings. One possible reason could be the different biocoenoses, which was assumed to be the cause after several microscopic examinations had been run.