Full‐scale Applications of Membrane Filtration in Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants

Abstract

The performance of one pilot‐scale and two full‐scale membrane bioreactors (MBR) were evaluated based on the control of main operational parameters, composition of microbial community and pathogens concentration in the treated outlet. Plants were designed for 0.75 m3/day (A), 60 m3/day (B) and 30 m3/day (C). Inlet and outlet samples were monitored for chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand, total suspended solids, ammonia nitrogen concentration (NH4–N), nitrate nitrogen concentration, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, total phosphorus and phosphate phosphorus concentration concentrations. Plants showed good COD removal: 91.9% for Plant A, 97.8% for Plant B and 94.2% for Plant C. The targeted nitrogenous ion was NH4–N due to the requirements for outlet limits. NH4–N removal was moderate for Plant A (73.3%) and Plant B (86.1%) and excellent for Plant C (>99%). Excellent phosphorus removal was achieved by Plant A (average outlet concentration was 0.7 mg/L, efficiency 84.7%). Unsatisfactory results for phosphorus removal were achieved at the full‐scale plants due to operational problems. The dependency between the extracellular polymeric substances increase and decreasing mixed liquor volatile suspended solids for both lab and full‐scale plants was confirmed. Soluble microbial product concentrations were reduced by 65–68% after coagulant dosage for Plant A. Outlets from the MBR plants were monitored for the presence of pathogens (thermotolerant coliforms, Escherichia coli, intestinal Enterococci and culturable microorganisms at 22 and 37°C). The treated effluent from Plant A, B and C met Czech national legislation regarding reuse criteria (standards) for environment, irrigation and swimming purposes. Plants B and C were not able to achieve requirements for potable water and personal hygiene quality standards.

Anaerobic membrane bioreactors—a mini review with emphasis on industrial wastewater treatment: applications, limitations and perspectives

“…from slaughterhouses [31], molasses production [32], dairy manure [29], pharmaceutical production [33] and landfill leachate [26]. While a number of full-scale aerobic MBR studies have been conducted on municipal or industrial wastewaters [23,[84][85][86], there has only been one study to date reporting on a full-scale AnMBR installation for industrial wastewater treatment ( [35]; Table 2). This full-scale AnMBR is employed to treat wastewaters originating from salad dressings production.…”

Modeling, simulation and control of biological and chemical P-removal processes for membrane bioreactors (MBRs) from lab to full-scale applications: State of the art

“…Based upon the findings of these two full scale facilities with 4-5 stages Bardenpho process, Daigger et al (2010) provided guidelines for designing MBR configurations to achieve the P-removal below regulatory level including: i) membrane recirculation flow should be directed to the aerobic zone, ii) intense mixing at the inlets of the anaerobic and anoxic zones, iii) consistent internal recirculation flow rates to maintain the desired MLSS distribution and iv) carefully controlled metal salt addition in proportion to the phosphorus remaining after biological removal. The study of Holba et al (2012) presented a comparative assessment of three MLE configurations. The highest P-removal efficiency was achieved with 2-stage MLE having single internal recirculation from aerobic to anoxic zone and with addition of coagulant.…”

“…The coagulant should be selected based on its price, regulatory acceptance and toxicity risk for the receiving bodies (in case of carryover). Alibardi et al, 2021;Holba et al, 2012;Li et al, 2017;Ren et al, 2019;Song et al, 2008;Sun et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2014;Wu et al, 2015;Yang et al, 2011;Zhang et al, 2015 Molar ratio Based on several studies presented Table 8 the optimum molar ratio varies between 1.5 and 4. Higher molar ratios can lead to breach of regulatory iron concentration due to carryover.…”

Full-scale trials to achieve low total phosphorus in effluents from sewage treatment works

“…Experiences of P removal by chemical dosing in MBR units report very low P effluent concentrations (<0.05 mgP/L as TP) [40] but the large majority of data previously reported in literature refer to either lab-scale units [44] or pilot scale units [40,41,45] while full-scale plants' experiences are still limited [46,47]. The most common configuration for chemical P removal in a full-scale plant is the use of two dosing points, one upstream of the primary sedimentation and one after the biological treatment and upstream of tertiary treatments [40,41,48].…”