Development of a membrane‐assisted hybrid bioreactor for ammonia and COD removal in wastewaters

Abstract

A new membrane-assisted hybrid bioreactor was developed to remove ammonia and organic matter. This system was composed of a hybrid circulating bed reactor (CBR) coupled in series to an ultrafiltration membrane module for biomass separation. The growth of biomass both in suspension and biofilms was promoted in the hybrid reactor. The system was operated for 103 days, during which a constant ammonia loading rate (ALR) was fed to the system. The COD/N-NH 4 + ratio was manipulated between 0 and 4, in order to study the effects of different organic matter concentrations on the nitrification capacity of the system. Experimental results have shown that it was feasible to operate with a membrane hybrid system attaining 99% chemical oxygen demand (

An innovative biofilm-suspended biomass hybrid membrane bioreactor for wastewater treatment

“…Oyanedel [5] obtained similar results in previous research using a similar hybrid MBR operated at a similar NLR. The nitrifying capacity of the biomass was determined when the reactor was operated with wastewaters coming from the fish-canning factory (Fig.…”

“…The suspended biomass concentration was measured in terms of volatile suspended solids. Determination of the nitrifying and heterotrophie activities for both biofilm and suspended biomass was made by biological oxygen monitoring (Yellowspring Instruments YSI-3500) according to the methodology described elsewhere [5].…”

“…The nitrifying capacity of the biofilm gradually increased with time, and at the end of the experimental period was higher than that of the suspended biomass. This good per- formance of the hybrid MBR can be explained due to the substrate competition between suspended and attach biomass [5,19]. Hybrid systems may be useful to avoid the negative effects of competition between the two trophic groups and the diffusional resistances found in flocs or biofilms.…”

“…Sludge settleability decreases when the organic loading rate (OLR) is increased [3], provoking operational problems when the unit is operated at high OLR. However, this limitation can be solved by replacing the secondary settling stage by membrane filtration units as suggested by the work of Oyanedel et al [4,5] in our laboratory.…”

Simultaneous removal of sulfur and nitrogen compounds with methane production from concentrated latex wastewater in two bioreactor zones of micro‐oxygen hybrid reactor

“…The results revealed that the two‐stage UASB reactor was capable of overcoming the limitations of the single‐stage UASB in the simultaneous removal of sulfur and nitrogen compounds from CLW. Nevertheless, such a two‐stage bioreactor requires high operational costs and area, although an anaerobic hybrid bioreactor combined with nylon fiber inside the reactor has been used as a high‐rate anaerobic reactor to treat agro‐industrial wastewater . Therefore, in this study, we investigated simultaneous sulfur and nitrogen compound removal in a micro‐oxygen hybrid bioreactors (MOHR) consisting of two distinct zones, i.e.…”