Model‐based comparative performance analysis of membrane aerated biofilm reactor configurations

Abstract

The potential of the membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) for high-rate bio-oxidation was investigated. A reaction-diffusion model was combined with a preliminary hollow-fiber MABR process model to investigate reaction rate-limiting regime and to perform comparative analysis on prospective designs and operational parameters. High oxidation fluxes can be attained in the MABR if the intra-membrane oxygen pressure is sufficiently high, however the volumetric oxidation rate is highly dependent on the membrane specific surface area and therefore the maximum performance, in volumetric terms, was achieved in MABRs with relatively thin fibers. The results show that unless the carbon substrate concentration is particularly high, there does not appear to be an advantage to be gained by designing MABRs on the basis of thick biofilms even if oxygen limitations can be overcome.

Enhancing biological denitrification with adding sludge liquor of hydrolytic acidification pretreated by high-pressure homogenization

“…The COD/N ratio of artificial wastewater was about 6:1. The trace element solution was prepared according to Syron and Casey (2008).…”

Biocatalytic membrane reactors for the removal of recalcitrant and emerging pollutants from wastewater

“…Several models have focused on the degradation of organic compounds by a single heterotrophic population (Casey et al ., 1999a(Casey et al ., , 2000Debus and Wanner, 1992 ;Essila et al ., 2000 ;Motlagh et al ., 2006 ;Semmens and Essila, 2001 ;Syron and Casey, 2008b ;Wanner et al ., 1994 ). A few studies have developed multipopulation models to investigate simultaneous removal of organics and nitrogen (Matsumoto et al ., 2007 ;Shanahan and Semmens, 2004 ;Terada et al ., 2007 ).…”

“…Syron and Casey ( 2008b ) simulated various scenarios for high-rate organics oxidation using oxygen-based MBfRs. They compared reactors with thin membranes (i.e., high surface area) and thin biofi lms to reactors with thick membranes (i.e., low surface area) and thick biofi lms.…”

Progress Toward the Full Scale Application of the Membrane-Aerated Biofilm Reactor (MABR)

“…Brindle et al (1999) used composite hollow-fibres (OD 280 µm, 447 m 2 /m 3 ) to treat cider brewery wastewater (1700 to 3000 mg COD/L) at pilot scale. Syron and Casey (2008b) concluded from a modelling case study that higher feed concentrations are possible (e.g. 10000 mgCOD/L) provided membrane SSA (e.g.…”