Performance of a membrane-coupled high-rate algal pond for urban wastewater treatment at demonstration scale

Ángel Robles; Gabriel Capson-Tojo; Amandine Gales; Alexandre Viruela; Bruno Sialve; Aurora Seco; Jean-Philippe Steyer; José Ferrer

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2019.122672

Performance of a membrane-coupled high-rate algal pond for urban wastewater treatment at demonstration scale

Bioresour Technol. 2020 Apr:301:122672. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2019.122672. Epub 2019 Dec 24.

Authors

Ángel Robles¹, Gabriel Capson-Tojo², Amandine Gales³, Alexandre Viruela⁴, Bruno Sialve³, Aurora Seco⁵, Jean-Philippe Steyer³, José Ferrer⁴

Affiliations

¹ Departament d'Enginyeria Química, Escola Tècnica Superior d'Enginyeria, Universitat de València, Avinguda de la Universitat s/n, 46100 Burjassot, Valencia, Spain. Electronic address: angel.robles@uv.es.
² CRETUS Institute, Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
³ LBE, Univ. Montpellier, INRA, 102 avenue des Etangs, 11100 Narbonne, France.
⁴ Institut Universitari d'Investigació d'Enginyeria de l'Aigua i Medi Ambient (IIAMA), Universitat Politècnica de València, Camí de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain.
⁵ Departament d'Enginyeria Química, Escola Tècnica Superior d'Enginyeria, Universitat de València, Avinguda de la Universitat s/n, 46100 Burjassot, Valencia, Spain.

PMID: 31945681
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2019.122672

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of an outdoor membrane-coupled high-rate algal pond equipped with industrial-scale membranes for treating urban wastewater. Decoupling biomass retention time (BRT) and hydraulic retention time (HRT) by membrane filtration resulted in improved process efficiencies, with higher biomass productivities and nutrient removal rates when operating at low HRTs. At 6 days of BRT, biomass productivity increased from 30 to 66 and to 95 g·m^-3·d^-1 when operating at HRTs of 6, 4 and 2.5 days, respectively. The corresponding nitrogen removal rates were 4, 8 and 11 g N·m^-3·d^-1 and the phosphorous removal rates were 0.5, 1.3 and 1.6 g P·m^-3·d^-1. The system was operated keeping moderate specific air demands (0.25 m³·m^-2·h^-1), resulting in reasonable operating and maintenance costs (€0.04 per m³) and energy requirements (0.29 kWh per m³). The produced water was free of pathogens and could be directly used for reusing purposes.

Keywords: HRAP; Hollow-fibre membranes; Industrial-scale; Nutrient recovery; Ultrafiltration.

MeSH terms

Biomass
Nitrogen
Ponds
Waste Disposal, Fluid
Wastewater*
Water Purification*

Substances

Waste Water
Nitrogen