Virus removal performance and mechanism of a submerged membrane bioreactor

Wenzhou Lv; Xiang Zheng; Min Yang; Yu Zhang; Ying Liu; Junxin Liu

doi:10.1016/j.procbio.2005.06.005

Virus removal performance and mechanism of a submerged membrane bioreactor

Process Biochem. 2006 Feb;41(2):299-304. doi: 10.1016/j.procbio.2005.06.005. Epub 2005 Jul 5.

Authors

Wenzhou Lv^{1

2}, Xiang Zheng¹, Min Yang¹, Yu Zhang¹, Ying Liu², Junxin Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Environmental Aquatic Chemistry, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.
² College of Architectural, Civil Engineering and Environment, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China.

Abstract

Responding to the worldwide outbreak of SARS in 2003, virus removal performance and mechanism of a SMBR were investigated by employing phage T4 as a model virus. Two membrane modules were compared in continuous operation for about 75 days. During stable operation, SMBR achieved almost complete phage removal for both membrane modules. For the 0.22 μm module, the cake layer, the gel layer and the membrane contributed 6.3 log, 3.1 log and 1.7 log, respectively to phage removal, confirming the importance of the cake/gel layer formed on the surface of membrane. The damage of the cake/gel layer resulted in the decrease of phage removal. As for the 0.1 μm one, the membrane alone played a major role in phage removal. Inactivation by activated sludge and adsorption by cake/gel layer contributed about 3.6 log to phage removal everyday so that there was no phage accumulation in bulk solution. The results demonstrated that SMBR was an efficient system and recommended for treatment of virus-bearing wastewater.

Keywords: Phage T4; Phage removal; Removal mechanism; Submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR); Wastewater treatment.