A New Membrane-Aerated Biofilm Reactor for Low Energy Wastewater Treatment: Pilot Results

Côté, Pierre; Peeters, Jeff; Adams, Nicholas W. H.; Hong, Youngseck; Long, Zebo; Ireland, John C.

doi:10.2175/193864715819540883

Cited by 27 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Cui also got the same result through the experiment [15], that ammonia-oxidizing bacteria activity was suppressed when the water dissolved oxygen content was low, which led to the ammonium oxidation rate reducing; moreover, when the content of dissolved oxygen in water had been recovered, ammonia-oxidizing activity of bacteria would be restored. The results shown in figure 3 and 4 are also consistent with the views of Côté et al [16]. They adopted the MABR of Zeelung fiber to achieve an ammonia nitrogen removal efficiency of 95%.…”

Section: Figure 1 Process Flow Diagram Of a Single Bench-scale Reactorsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…This modification not only reduces energy consumption but also increases processing capacity and facilitates future expansion needs. Cote et al in a recent study showed that using ZeeLung™ cords MABR can achieve greater than 6 kg/O2/kWh energy efficiency [8], at the same time remained 91% of the total removal rate of suspended particulate matter, COD removal rate of 83%. 95% ammonia removal rate and 66% total inorganic removal rate for traditional domestic sewage.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Test of Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactors for Nitrogen Removal in Wastewater Treatment

Chen

2022

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

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Membrane aerated biofilm reactor, as a biological wastewater treatment technology, has been nearly mature on a commercial scale. It uses bubble-free aeration to provide oxygen for biological nitrification and wastewater degradation. A novel oxygen-permeable hollow fiber membrane (Zeelung cord) specifically designed for use in a membrane aerated biofilm reactors (MABR). These fibers are organized into bundles, which are wrapped around the reinforcing core to increase strength. This permeable membrane allows oxygen to diffuse into the attached biofilm, which directly leads to the biological oxidation of pollutants in the wastewater. This study aimed to determine the nitrification and oxygen transfer capacity of Zeelung fibers used in the MABR system. The effects of various C/N ratios (in the range of 1.0 to 3.0) on the membrane modules were studied using three laboratory-scale reactors over the course of 165 days. In this test, the average removal efficiency of COD can reach 74% under selected conditions, up to 90%. Meanwhile, the average nitrification rate is 3.9 g/d/m2, the average ammonia removal rate is 90%, and the maximum value can reach 99%. In addition, the oxygen transfer rate of the fiber in the liquid phase was 19.65 g/d/m2. The experiment also indicated that the nitrification rate is directly proportional to the transfer flux of oxygen and is related to the content of dissolved oxygen in the water. The nitrification rate can be controlled by controlling the concentration of dissolved oxygen in water, thus affecting the removal rate of ammonia nitrogen.

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Section: Figure 1 Process Flow Diagram Of a Single Bench-scale Reactorsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Test of Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactors for Nitrogen Removal in Wastewater Treatment

Chen

2022

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

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“…It should be noted that aeration control via manipulating the oxygen partial pressure is often not practiced in commercial applications. Instead, oxygen is introduced into the MABR lumen at the design airflow rate, and oxygen partial pressure in the lumen changes as a result of oxygen transfer and microbial consumption (Côté et al 2015;Bicudo et al 2019). For Zeelung and OxyMem MABRs, this is done because exhaust gas from the MABR is used to create fluid flow through the MABR bundle to renew the fluid inside the bundle and to increase the mass transfer of substrates from the bulk liquid into the biofilm on the MABR membranes (Downing 2021).…”

Section: Oxygen Transfer and Aeration Modesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The advantages of MABR technology include high effluent quality (Sunner et al 2018;Sathyamoorthy et al 2019), high carbon processing efficiency (Houweling & Daigger 2019;Mehrabi et al 2020), up to 100% oxygen transfer efficiency (OTE) (Heffernan et al 2017;Bicudo et al 2019), and compact reactor footprints (Sunner et al 2018). Compared to other biofilm reactors, like Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) with a typical designed nitrification rate (NR) of 0.5 g N/m 2 -d, MABRs achieve greatly improved NRs of 1.0-3.0 g N/m 2 -d (Côté et al 2015;Kunetz et al 2016;Peeters et al 2017aPeeters et al , 2017bUnderwood et al 2018;Nathan et al 2020). The greatly improved NRs result from high oxygen transfer rates (OTRs) in MABRs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent progress using membrane aerated biofilm reactors for wastewater treatment

Wagner

Carlson

et al. 2021

Water Science and Technology

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The membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR), which is based on the counter diffusion of the electron donors and acceptors into the biofilm, represents a novel technology for wastewater treatment. When process air or oxygen is supplied, the MBfR is known as the membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR), which has high oxygen transfer rate and efficiency, promoting microbial growth and activity within the biofilm. Over the past few decades, lab-scale studies have helped researchers and practitioners understand the relevance of influencing factors and biological transformations in MABRs. In recent years, pilot- to full-scale installations are increasing along with process modeling. The resulting accumulated knowledge has greatly improved understanding of the counter-diffusional biological process, with new challenges and opportunities arising. Therefore, it is crucial to provide new insights by conducting this review. This paper reviews wastewater treatment advancements using MABR technology, including design and operational considerations, microbial community ecology, and process modeling. Treatment performance of pilot- to full-scale MABRs for process intensification in existing facilities is assessed. This paper also reviews other emerging applications of MABRs, including sulfur recovery, industrial wastewater, and xenobiotics bioremediation, space-based wastewater treatment, and autotrophic nitrogen removal. In conclusion, commercial applications demonstrate that MABR technology is beneficial for pollutants (COD, N, P, xenobiotics) removal, resource recovery (e.g., sulfur), and N2O mitigation. Further research is needed to increase packing density while retaining efficient external mass transfer, understand the microbial interactions occurring, address existing assumptions to improve process modeling and control, and optimize the operational conditions with site-specific considerations.

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“…Bio lm oxygen demand, which is a function of bio lm characteristics and operational parameters such as other substrates concentration (nitrogen and carbon), in uences the oxygen gradient's extent within the membrane wall in a treatment process (Pellicer-Nàcher et al, 2013;Shanahan and Semmens, 2006). The OTR and OTE are calculated as per equations 1 and 2 (Côté et al, 2015):…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single-Stage Biofilm-Based Total Nitrogen Removal in a Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor: Impact of Aeration Mode, HRT and Scouring Intensity

Mehrabi¹,

Houweling²,

Dagnew³

2021

Preprint

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High energy costs, organic carbon availability, and space limitation are some of the barriers faced by wastewater treatment processes. This research investigates the impact of membrane aeration mode, scouring intensity, and loading rate in a single-stage total nitrogen removal process in a membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR). Under ammonia loading of 2.7 g N/m2.d, continuous process aeration led to 1.7 g NH4-N/m2.d and 0.8 g TN/m2.d removal, respectively. Conversely, intermittent (5/12 min on/off) aeration resulted in 35% less ammonia removal but 34% higher total nitrogen (TN) removal. The MABR under ammonia load of 1.6 g N/m2.d showed an enhanced effluent quality with an average of 2.5 mg/L effluent ammonia concentration. This finding highlights the nitrification potential of a flow-through MABR as a standalone treatment step without any downstream process. Also, slough-off, a common issue in the biofilm process and was hypothesized to reduce the removal efficiency, showed increased ammonia removal rates by 20%. The microbial analysis indicated the dominant AOB and NOB species as Nitrosomonas spp. and Nitrospira spp, respectively. Moreover, the relative abundance of denitrifying bacteria (40.5%) were found twice in intermittently-aerated MABR compared to the continuously-aerated one (20.5%). However, NOB and denitrifying bacteria relative abundances were comparable where continuous air was supplied.

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A New Membrane-Aerated Biofilm Reactor for Low Energy Wastewater Treatment: Pilot Results

Cited by 27 publications

References 5 publications

Test of Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactors for Nitrogen Removal in Wastewater Treatment

Test of Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactors for Nitrogen Removal in Wastewater Treatment

Recent progress using membrane aerated biofilm reactors for wastewater treatment

Single-Stage Biofilm-Based Total Nitrogen Removal in a Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor: Impact of Aeration Mode, HRT and Scouring Intensity

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