Proving Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor (MABR) Performance and Reliability: Results from Four Pilots and a Full-Scale Plant

Houweling, Dwight; Peeters, Jeff; Côté, Pierre; Long, Zebo; Adams, Nick

doi:10.2175/193864717822155786

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…MABRs provide a stratified redox environment that is appropriate for studying nitrogen and sulfur cycling; specifically, they provide a way to observe both microbial population selection in concert with nitrogen and sulfur speciation. In addition, MABRs are energy efficient, and thus are increasingly being considered for full‐scale wastewater treatment (Heffernan et al ., 2017; Houweling et al ., 2017; Peeters et al ., 2017). We contend that understanding how microbes interact in MABRs can inform our understanding of both microbial cross‐feeding and bioreactor design approaches that achieve effective nitrogen removal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sulfide alters microbial functional potential in a methane and nitrogen cycling biofilm reactor

Vela

Bristow

Marchant

et al. 2020

Environmental Microbiology

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Cross-feeding of metabolites between coexisting cells leads to complex and interconnected elemental cycling and microbial interactions. These relationships influence overall community function and can be altered by changes in substrate availability. Here, we used isotopic rate measurements and metagenomic sequencing to study how cross-feeding relationships changed in response to stepwise increases of sulfide concentrations in a membraneaerated biofilm reactor that was fed with methane and ammonium. Results showed that sulfide: (i) decreased nitrite oxidation rates but increased ammonia oxidation rates; (ii) changed the denitrifying community and increased nitrous oxide production; and (iii) induced dissimilatory nitrite reduction to ammonium (DNRA). We infer that inhibition of nitrite oxidation resulted in higher nitrite availability for DNRA, anammox, and nitrite-dependent anaerobic methane oxidation. In other words, sulfide likely disrupted microbial cross-feeding between AOB and NOB and induced cross-feeding between AOB and nitrite reducing organisms. Furthermore, these cross-feeding relationships were spatially distributed between biofilm and planktonic phases of the reactor. These results indicate that using sulfide as an electron donor will promote N 2 O and ammonium production, which is generally not desirable in engineered systems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sulfide alters microbial functional potential in a methane and nitrogen cycling biofilm reactor

Vela

Bristow

Marchant

et al. 2020

Environmental Microbiology

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“…Incorporation of MABR units into an anaerobic zone can be problematic because membrane aeration introduces electron acceptors, i.e., dissolved oxygen (DO) directly and also nitrate if nitrification occurs, that reduces fermentation and allows other heterotrophs to compete with PAOs for VFAs that may be present. Placement of the MABR in the anoxic tank is an established practice for biological nitrogen removal (Houweling et al 2017; Underwood Packing density is a critical parameter to size the MABR zone in the hybrid process. While a high packing densities can provide a larger specific surface area to support biofilm attachment and consequently promote the pollutant removal rates, biofilm bridging can occur at high packing densities, resulting in a decrease in the effective surface area (Hou et al 2019).…”

Section: Membrane Module Configuration and Process Layoutmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…OTRs and OTEs are two key performance indicators used to evaluate MABR processes (Houweling et al 2017). The OTR across the membrane can be described as (Pellicer-Nàcher et al 2013):…”

Section: Oxygen Transfer and Aeration Modesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Hybrid MABR/AS process is a typical configuration to intensify biological carbon and nutrient removal in plants. Incorporating MABRs in the unaerated zones creates an aerobic condition in the biofilm for nitrification, and the produced nitrate is released into the anoxic bulk liquid where the suspended biomass performs denitrification for complete nitrogen removal (Houweling et al 2017). The SND pathway has been well-demonstrated in pilot-scale testing (Kunetz et al 2016;Peeters et al 2017aPeeters et al , 2017b and full-scale applications (Houweling et al 2017;Underwood et al 2018;Nathan et al 2020).…”

Section: Biological Carbon and Nutrient Removalmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Recent progress using membrane aerated biofilm reactors for wastewater treatment

Wagner

Carlson

et al. 2021

Water Science and Technology

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The membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR), which is based on the counter diffusion of the electron donors and acceptors into the biofilm, represents a novel technology for wastewater treatment. When process air or oxygen is supplied, the MBfR is known as the membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR), which has high oxygen transfer rate and efficiency, promoting microbial growth and activity within the biofilm. Over the past few decades, lab-scale studies have helped researchers and practitioners understand the relevance of influencing factors and biological transformations in MABRs. In recent years, pilot- to full-scale installations are increasing along with process modeling. The resulting accumulated knowledge has greatly improved understanding of the counter-diffusional biological process, with new challenges and opportunities arising. Therefore, it is crucial to provide new insights by conducting this review. This paper reviews wastewater treatment advancements using MABR technology, including design and operational considerations, microbial community ecology, and process modeling. Treatment performance of pilot- to full-scale MABRs for process intensification in existing facilities is assessed. This paper also reviews other emerging applications of MABRs, including sulfur recovery, industrial wastewater, and xenobiotics bioremediation, space-based wastewater treatment, and autotrophic nitrogen removal. In conclusion, commercial applications demonstrate that MABR technology is beneficial for pollutants (COD, N, P, xenobiotics) removal, resource recovery (e.g., sulfur), and N2O mitigation. Further research is needed to increase packing density while retaining efficient external mass transfer, understand the microbial interactions occurring, address existing assumptions to improve process modeling and control, and optimize the operational conditions with site-specific considerations.

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“…MABR systems are becoming popular in biological carbon and nitrogen removal processes because of their capability of hosting a higher amount of biomass and, consequently, achieving higher removal rates while saving a considerable amount of oxygen (up to 70%) compared to conventional systems as well as smaller footprint (Houweling et al, 2017a) 1 demonstrates, the few MABR studies implementing SND either have obtained low removal e ciencies or have applied longer HRTs (12-28 h) as well as higher C:N (5-18) ratios. However, the C:N ratios that were studied are much higher than the C:N ratio (< 3) that can be achieved in post-carbon redirection processes, hence further studies at lower C:N ratios are required to evaluate the feasibility of using chemically enhanced primary treated (CEPT) wastewater in denitri cation without adding any external carbon source.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single-Stage Biofilm-Based Total Nitrogen Removal in a Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor: Impact of Aeration Mode, HRT and Scouring Intensity

Mehrabi¹,

Houweling²,

Dagnew³

2021

Preprint

Self Cite

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High energy costs, organic carbon availability, and space limitation are some of the barriers faced by wastewater treatment processes. This research investigates the impact of membrane aeration mode, scouring intensity, and loading rate in a single-stage total nitrogen removal process in a membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR). Under ammonia loading of 2.7 g N/m2.d, continuous process aeration led to 1.7 g NH4-N/m2.d and 0.8 g TN/m2.d removal, respectively. Conversely, intermittent (5/12 min on/off) aeration resulted in 35% less ammonia removal but 34% higher total nitrogen (TN) removal. The MABR under ammonia load of 1.6 g N/m2.d showed an enhanced effluent quality with an average of 2.5 mg/L effluent ammonia concentration. This finding highlights the nitrification potential of a flow-through MABR as a standalone treatment step without any downstream process. Also, slough-off, a common issue in the biofilm process and was hypothesized to reduce the removal efficiency, showed increased ammonia removal rates by 20%. The microbial analysis indicated the dominant AOB and NOB species as Nitrosomonas spp. and Nitrospira spp, respectively. Moreover, the relative abundance of denitrifying bacteria (40.5%) were found twice in intermittently-aerated MABR compared to the continuously-aerated one (20.5%). However, NOB and denitrifying bacteria relative abundances were comparable where continuous air was supplied.

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Proving Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor (MABR) Performance and Reliability: Results from Four Pilots and a Full-Scale Plant

Cited by 15 publications

References 0 publications

Sulfide alters microbial functional potential in a methane and nitrogen cycling biofilm reactor

Sulfide alters microbial functional potential in a methane and nitrogen cycling biofilm reactor

Recent progress using membrane aerated biofilm reactors for wastewater treatment

Single-Stage Biofilm-Based Total Nitrogen Removal in a Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor: Impact of Aeration Mode, HRT and Scouring Intensity

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