Impact of temperature on feed-flow characteristics and filtration performance of an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket coupled ultrafiltration membrane treating municipal wastewater

Hale Ozgun; Yu Tao; Mustafa Evren Ersahin; Zhongbo Zhou; Juan B Gimenez; Henri Spanjers; Jules B van Lier

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2015.06.035

Impact of temperature on feed-flow characteristics and filtration performance of an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket coupled ultrafiltration membrane treating municipal wastewater

Water Res. 2015 Oct 15:83:71-83. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2015.06.035. Epub 2015 Jun 23.

Authors

Hale Ozgun¹, Yu Tao², Mustafa Evren Ersahin³, Zhongbo Zhou⁴, Juan B Gimenez⁵, Henri Spanjers⁶, Jules B van Lier⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Water Management, Section Sanitary Engineering, Delft University of Technology, PO Box 5048, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands; Istanbul Technical University, Civil Engineering Faculty, Environmental Engineering Department, Ayazaga Campus, Maslak, 34469 Istanbul, Turkey. Electronic address: H.Ozgun@tudelft.nl.
² Department of Water Management, Section Sanitary Engineering, Delft University of Technology, PO Box 5048, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
³ Department of Water Management, Section Sanitary Engineering, Delft University of Technology, PO Box 5048, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands; Istanbul Technical University, Civil Engineering Faculty, Environmental Engineering Department, Ayazaga Campus, Maslak, 34469 Istanbul, Turkey.
⁴ Department of Water Management, Section Sanitary Engineering, Delft University of Technology, PO Box 5048, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands; School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China.
⁵ Department of Water Management, Section Sanitary Engineering, Delft University of Technology, PO Box 5048, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands; Departament d'Enginyeria Quimica, Escola Tecnica Superior d'Enginyeria, Universitat de Valencia, Avda. De la Universitat s/n, 46100 Burjassot, Valencia, Spain.
⁶ Department of Water Management, Section Sanitary Engineering, Delft University of Technology, PO Box 5048, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands.

PMID: 26141423
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2015.06.035

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the operational feasibility of an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR), consisting of an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor coupled to an ultrafiltration membrane unit, at two operational temperatures (25°C and 15°C) for the treatment of municipal wastewater. The results showed that membrane fouling at 15°C was more severe than that at 25°C. Higher chemical oxygen demand (COD) and soluble microbial products (SMP) concentrations, lower mean particle diameter, and higher turbidity in the UASB effluent at lower temperature aggravated membrane fouling compared to the 25°C operation. However, the overall AnMBR treatment performance was not significantly affected by temperature, which was attributed to the physical membrane barrier. Cake resistance was found responsible for over 40% of the total fouling in both cases. However, an increase was observed in the contribution of pore blocking resistance at 15°C related to the larger amount of fine particles in the UASB effluent compared to 25°C. Based on the overall results, it is concluded that an AnMBR, consisting of a UASB coupled membrane unit, is not found technically feasible for the treatment of municipal wastewater at 15°C, considering the rapid deterioration of the filtration performance.

Keywords: Anaerobic membrane bioreactor; Membrane fouling; Municipal wastewater; Temperature; Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Anaerobiosis
Bioreactors
Sewage / analysis*
Temperature*
Ultrafiltration* / instrumentation
Waste Disposal, Fluid / methods*
Wastewater / analysis*
Water Purification / methods*

Substances

Sewage
Waste Water