In this study, three laboratory scale submerged membrane bioreactors (MBRs) comprising a conventional MBR (C-MBR), moving bed MBR (MB-MBR) and anoxic-oxic MBR (A/O-MBR) were continuously operated with synthesized domestic wastewater (chemical oxygen demand, COD = 500 mg/L) for 150 days under similar operational and environmental conditions. Kaldnes® plastic media with 20% dry volume was used as a biofilm carrier in the MB-MBR and A/O-MBR. The treatment performance and fouling propensity of the MBRs were evaluated. The effect of cake layer formation in all three MBRs was almost the same. However, pore blocking caused a major difference in the resultant water flux. The A/O-MBR showed the highest total nitrogen and phosphorus (PO4-P) removal efficiencies of 83.2 and 69.7%, respectively. Due to the high removal of nitrogen, fewer protein contents were found in the soluble and bound extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) of the A/O-MBR. Fouling trends of the MBRs showed 12, 14 and 20 days filtration cycles for C-MBR, MB-MBR and A/O-MBR, respectively. A 25% reduction of the soluble EPS and a 37% reduction of the bound EPS concentrations in A/O-MBR compared with C-MBR was a major contributing factor for fouling retardation and the enhanced filtration capacity of the A/O-MBR.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
Research Article|
January 13 2014
Membrane fouling and performance evaluation of conventional membrane bioreactor (MBR), moving biofilm MBR and oxic/anoxic MBR
Sher Jamal Khan;
1Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (IESE), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (SCEE), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Sector H-12, Islamabad, Pakistan
E-mail: s.jamal@iese.nust.edu.pk
Search for other works by this author on:
Aman Ahmad;
Aman Ahmad
1Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (IESE), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (SCEE), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Sector H-12, Islamabad, Pakistan
Search for other works by this author on:
Muhammad Saqib Nawaz;
Muhammad Saqib Nawaz
1Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (IESE), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (SCEE), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Sector H-12, Islamabad, Pakistan
Search for other works by this author on:
Nicholas P. Hankins
Nicholas P. Hankins
2Department of Engineering Science, Centre for Sustainable Water Engineering, The University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PJ, UK
Search for other works by this author on:
Water Sci Technol (2014) 69 (7): 1403–1409.
Article history
Received:
September 21 2013
Accepted:
December 05 2013
Citation
Sher Jamal Khan, Aman Ahmad, Muhammad Saqib Nawaz, Nicholas P. Hankins; Membrane fouling and performance evaluation of conventional membrane bioreactor (MBR), moving biofilm MBR and oxic/anoxic MBR. Water Sci Technol 1 April 2014; 69 (7): 1403–1409. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2014.007
Download citation file:
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Client Account
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.
Could not validate captcha. Please try again.
eBook
Pay-Per-View Access
$38.00