Membrane integrated process for advanced treatment of high strength Opium Alkaloid wastewaters

Abstract

In this study, an integrated aerobic membrane bioreactor (MBR)-nanofiltration (NF) system has been applied for advanced treatment of Opium processing wastewaters to comply with strict discharge limits. Aerobic MBR treatment was successfully applied to high strength industrial wastewater. In aerobic MBR treatment, a non-fouling unique slot aeration system was designed using computational fluid dynamics techniques. The MBR was used to separate treated effluent from dispersed and non-settleable biomass. Respirometric modeling using MBR sludge indicated that the biomass exhibited similar kinetic parameters to that of municipal activated sludge systems. Aerobic MBR/NF treatment reduced chemical oxygen demand (COD) from 32,000 down to 2,500 and 130 mg/L, respectively. The MBR system provided complete removal of total inorganic nitrogen; however, nearly 50 mgN/L organic nitrogen remained in the permeate. Post NF treatment after MBR permeate reduced nitrogen below 20 mgN/L, providing nearly total color removal. In addition, a 90% removal in the conductivity parameter was reached with an integrated MBR/NF system. Finally, post NF application to MBR permeate was found not to be practical at higher pH due to low flux (3-4 L/m/hour) with low recovery rates (30-40%). As the permeate pH lowered to 5.5, 75% of NF recovery was achieved at a flux of 15 L/m/hour.

Optimization of operational parameters at laboratory scale membrane bioreactor for treatment of high-strength opium alkaloid wastewater: The effect of pretreatment

“…There is a limited number of studies investigating treatment of opium alkoloid wastewater in the literature. Table 10 summarizes the key performance parameters reported in the literature( [12] and [22]) for different operations. The usage of NF membrane with MBR system enhanced the NF performance.…”

Membrane processes

“…The removal of organic micropollutants was studied in a baffled OMBR‐MF hybrid system by Pathak, Li, et al (2018), which used an FO membrane rejection process and showed that the removal was greater using an organic draw solute as compared with an inorganic draw solute. Another integrated MBR‐NF hybrid system was evaluated for the treatment of opium processing wastewater, which required a strict industrial wastewater discharge limit (Insel et al., 2018). The study found similar kinetics to municipal activated sludge.…”

Enhanced treatment of composite industrial wastewater using anaerobic‐anoxic‐oxic membrane bioreactor: performance, membrane fouling and microbial community

“…Liu et al demonstrated that a two‐stage AO‐MBR system was beneficial to pollutant removal in landfill leachate, and the average removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total nitrogen (TN) were 80.6% and 74.9%, respectively. Insel et al reported that anoxic‐MBR‐nanofiltration (NF) could reduce the COD and TN from 32 000 to 130 mg L −1 , and from 670 to 20 mg L −1 , respectively, in high strength opium alkaloid wastewater. In addition, previous studies indicated that the characteristics of influent, and the operational conditions [such as hydraulic retention time (HRT), sludge retention time (SRT) and return ratio] were important factors that influenced the removal efficiencies of pollutants in MBR‐integrated activated sludge treatment systems.…”

“…In addition, previous studies indicated that the characteristics of influent, and the operational conditions [such as hydraulic retention time (HRT), sludge retention time (SRT) and return ratio] were important factors that influenced the removal efficiencies of pollutants in MBR‐integrated activated sludge treatment systems. However, existing studies have focused either on domestic wastewater or on a single type of industrial wastewater, while the removal of composite industrial wastewater in industrial parks has not been well investigated using MBR‐integrated activated sludge systems.…”