Minimizing membrane bioreactor environmental footprint by multiple objective optimization

Giorgio Mannina; Bing-Jie Ni; Taise Ferreira Rebouças; Alida Cosenza; Gustaf Olsson

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2020.122824

Minimizing membrane bioreactor environmental footprint by multiple objective optimization

Bioresour Technol. 2020 Apr:302:122824. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.122824. Epub 2020 Jan 20.

Authors

Giorgio Mannina¹, Bing-Jie Ni², Taise Ferreira Rebouças³, Alida Cosenza³, Gustaf Olsson⁴

Affiliations

¹ Engineering Department, Palermo University, Viale delle Scienze, Ed.8, 90128 Palermo, Italy; School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Tianjin Chengjian University, 26 Jinjing Road, Xiqing District, Tianjin 300384, China. Electronic address: giorgio.mannina@unipa.it.
² Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2007, Australia.
³ Engineering Department, Palermo University, Viale delle Scienze, Ed.8, 90128 Palermo, Italy.
⁴ Department of Industrial Electrical Engineering and Automation (IEA), Lund University, Box 118, SE-22100 Lund, Sweden.

PMID: 32000132
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.122824

Abstract

This paper presents a modelling study aimed at minimizing the environmental foot print of a membrane bioreactor (MBR) for wastewater treatment. Specifically, an integrated model for MBR was employed in view of the management optimization of an MBR biological nutrient removal (BNR) pilot plant in terms of operational costs and direct greenhouse gases emissions. The influence of the operational parameters (OPs) on performance indicators (PIs) was investigated by adopting the Extended-FAST sensitivity analysis method. Further, a multi-objective analysis was performed by applying the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). The results show-up that the sludge retention time is the OP mostly affecting all the investigated PIs. By applying the set of optimal OPs, there was a reduction of 48% and 10% of the operational costs and direct emissions, respectively.

Keywords: Greenhouse gases; Mathematical modelling optimization; Membrane fouling; Multi-objective analysis; Wastewater treatment plant.

MeSH terms

Bioreactors
Greenhouse Gases*
Membranes, Artificial
Sewage
Waste Disposal, Fluid*
Wastewater

Substances

Greenhouse Gases
Membranes, Artificial
Sewage
Waste Water