Integrated electro-coagulation and gravity driven ceramic membrane bioreactor for roofing rainwater purification: Flux improvement and extreme operating case

Xing Du; Rong Ma; Mengyao Xiao; Wei Song; Yingshi Tan; Zhihong Wang; Alex Hay-Man Ng; Wenxiang Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158197

Integrated electro-coagulation and gravity driven ceramic membrane bioreactor for roofing rainwater purification: Flux improvement and extreme operating case

Sci Total Environ. 2022 Dec 10;851(Pt 1):158197. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158197. Epub 2022 Aug 20.

Authors

Xing Du¹, Rong Ma¹, Mengyao Xiao¹, Wei Song¹, Yingshi Tan¹, Zhihong Wang¹, Alex Hay-Man Ng², Wenxiang Zhang³

Affiliations

¹ School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.
² School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, PR China; School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia; Key Laboratory for City Cluster Environmental Safety and Green Development of the Ministry of Education, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, PR China. Electronic address: hayman.ng@gdut.edu.cn.
³ Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division, Water Desalination and Reuse Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: wenxiang.zhang@kaust.edu.sa.

PMID: 35995152
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158197

Abstract

The collected roofing rainwater with high water quality and large water volume, can alleviate the crisis of water resources and fit the Low-Impact Development (LID) concept. In this work, a novel water purification technology, Electro-Coagulation coupled with Gravity-Driven Ceramic Membrane Bio-Reactor (EC-GDCMBR) was developed for the roofing rainwater purification under long-term operation (136 days). EC-GDCMBR system not only exhibited the better effluent quality, but also obtained the greater flux (~32 LMH). The reason contributed to the high permeability of ceramic membrane and large porosity of biofilm formed by floc growth (~36 μm) during the EC process, which was also proved by SEM image. The coagulation, adsorption, biodegradation, and coprecipitation of EC-GDCMBR was able to synergistically remove the particulate matter, ammonia nitrogen (NH₃-N), Total Phosphorus (TP), organic substances, and heavy metal (i.e., Cr, Zn, and Cu). In particular, via the analysis of bacterial abundance, Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS), Assimilable Organic Carbon (AOC), Adenosine Tri-Phosphate (ATP) and Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM), EC could sweep most free bacteria on the ceramic membrane surface, enhancing the biological purification efficiency. Furthermore, a large amount of Pseudomonas (12.4 %-66.7 %) and Nitrospira (1.46 %-3.16 %) in the aggregates formed the biofilms, improved the NH₃-N removal. During the long-term operation, there are some unavoidable problems, such as the thick and ripened biofilm of EC-GDCMBR would crack and fall off. Based on this, the current work also studied the reliability of GDCMBR under "extreme operating case", and the results showed that neither the biofilm detachment nor the biofilm breakup had a significant impact on the effluent quality. Overall, the findings of this study suggest the reliability of EC-GDCMBR for the sustainable operation of roofing rainwater purification and improve the application value of decentralized rainwater harvest device.

Keywords: Electro-coagulation; Extreme operating case; GDCMBR; LID (Low-Impact Development); Roofing rainwater purification.

MeSH terms

Adenosine
Adenosine Triphosphate
Ammonia*
Bioreactors
Carbon
Ceramics
Nitrogen
Particulate Matter
Phosphates
Phosphorus
Reproducibility of Results
Water Purification* / methods

Substances

Particulate Matter
Phosphates
Phosphorus
Carbon
Ammonia
Adenosine Triphosphate
Adenosine
Nitrogen