Pilot plant demonstration of temperature impacts on the methanogenic performance and membrane fouling control of the anaerobic membrane bioreactor in treating real municipal wastewater

Chao Rong; Tianjie Wang; Zibin Luo; Yisong Hu; Zhe Kong; Yu Qin; Taira Hanaoka; Masami Ito; Masumi Kobayashi; Yu-You Li

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2022.127167

Pilot plant demonstration of temperature impacts on the methanogenic performance and membrane fouling control of the anaerobic membrane bioreactor in treating real municipal wastewater

Bioresour Technol. 2022 Jun:354:127167. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.127167. Epub 2022 Apr 15.

Authors

Chao Rong¹, Tianjie Wang², Zibin Luo², Yisong Hu³, Zhe Kong⁴, Yu Qin², Taira Hanaoka⁵, Masami Ito⁶, Masumi Kobayashi⁷, Yu-You Li⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Frontier Sciences for Advanced Environment, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, 6-6-06 Aza-Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba Ward, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan.
² Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, 6-6-06 Aza-Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba Ward, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan.
³ Key Lab of Northwest Water Resource, Environment and Ecology, MOE, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710055, PR China.
⁴ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou 215009, PR China.
⁵ Solution Engineering Group, Environmental Engineering Department, Mitsubishi Kakoki Kaisha, Ltd., 1-2 Miyamae-Cho, Kawasaki-Ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 210-0012, Japan.
⁶ Global Water Recycling and Reuse System Association, Japan, 5-1, Soto-Kanda 1-Chome, Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo 101-0021, Japan.
⁷ Separation and Aqua Chemicals Department, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Gate City Osaki East Tower, 11-2 Osaki 1-chome, Shinagawa-Ku, Tokyo 141-0032, Japan.
⁸ Department of Frontier Sciences for Advanced Environment, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, 6-6-06 Aza-Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba Ward, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, 6-6-06 Aza-Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba Ward, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan. Electronic address: gyokuyu.ri.a5@tohoku.ac.jp.

PMID: 35436540
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.127167

Abstract

A 5,000-L anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) fed with actual municipal wastewater was employed to study the impact of temperature drops on methanogenic performance and membrane fouling. With temperature dropped from 25 °C to 15 °C, the methane yield decreased from 0.244 to 0.205 NL-CH₄/g-COD_removal and the dissolved methane increased from 29% to 43%, resulted in the methanogenic performance reduced by 25%. The membrane rejection offset the deteriorated anaerobic digestion at low temperatures and ensured the stable COD removal efficiency of 84.5%-90.0%. The synergistic effects of the increased microbial products and viscosity and the residual inorganic foulants aggravated the membrane fouling at lower temperatures. As the organic fouling was easily removed by NaClO, the inorganics related to the elements of S, Ca and Fe were the stubborn membrane foulants and required the enhanced acid membrane cleaning. These findings obtained under the quasi-practical condition are expected to promote the practical applications of mainstream AnMBR.

Keywords: Anaerobic membrane bioreactor; Low temperature; Membrane fouling; Municipal wastewater; Pilot study.

MeSH terms

Anaerobiosis
Bioreactors
Membranes, Artificial
Methane
Temperature
Waste Disposal, Fluid*
Wastewater*

Substances

Membranes, Artificial
Waste Water
Methane