Low dose powdered activated carbon addition at high sludge retention times to reduce fouling in membrane bioreactors

Influence of membrane properties on fouling in MBRs

“…Fouling is a complex process not only influenced by the membrane configuration and membrane properties, but also by two other key parameters: feed properties and operational conditions [28,29]. The influence of these two key parameters also should be considered in identifying optimal membrane properties.…”

Effect of Powdered Activated Carbon to Reduce Fouling in Membrane Bioreactors: A Sustainable Solution. Case Study

“…More frequent membrane replacement is also expected. Many authors [4][5][6][7] have shown that membrane fouling (and deriving energy costs increase) remains the most adverse barrier to the MBR implementation both in urban and industrial wastewater treatment sectors, remaining one of the most challenging issues to face further MBR development. Many factors can influence membrane fouling [4].…”

“…Several researches [5,[10][11][12] have shown that the addition of Powdered Activated Carbon (PAC) to sludge contributes in reducing membrane fouling. However, most of these contributions regard relatively narrow PAC concentration ranges and mainly industrial wastewater applications, as shown in Table 1.…”

“…Remy et al [5] proposed a very comprehensive resume of the main research contributions on this issue and reported that the addition of low PAC concentrations can increase the permeate flux of about 10% by improving the membrane filtration performance.…”

“…Fouling reduction was explained by a stronger sludge floc structure [20,21]. Remy et al [5][6][7] analyzed the course of the TMP during the critical permeate flux determination. No PAC sludge exhibited a higher TMP than sludge with PAC.…”