Enhanced energy production and biological treatment of swine wastewater using anaerobic membrane bioreactor: Fouling mechanism and microbial community

Yunhui Pu; Jialing Tang; Ting Zeng; Yisong Hu; Qingyuan Wang; Jin Huang; Shengwang Pan; Xiaochang C Wang; Yuyou Li; Huu Hao Ngo; Abdelfatah Abomohra

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2022.127850

Enhanced energy production and biological treatment of swine wastewater using anaerobic membrane bioreactor: Fouling mechanism and microbial community

Bioresour Technol. 2022 Oct:362:127850. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.127850. Epub 2022 Aug 27.

Authors

Yunhui Pu¹, Jialing Tang², Ting Zeng³, Yisong Hu³, Qingyuan Wang⁴, Jin Huang⁴, Shengwang Pan⁴, Xiaochang C Wang³, Yuyou Li⁵, Huu Hao Ngo⁶, Abdelfatah Abomohra⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, China; Institute of New Energy and Low-carbon Technology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610225, China.
² School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, China; Key Lab of Northwest Water Resource, Environment and Ecology, MOE, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710055, China. Electronic address: tangjialing88@126.com.
³ Key Lab of Northwest Water Resource, Environment and Ecology, MOE, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710055, China.
⁴ School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, China.
⁵ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai 9808579, Japan.
⁶ Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia.

PMID: 36031130
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.127850

Abstract

This study aimed to reveal the membrane fouling mechanisms during anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) operation for swine wastewater treatment under different organic loading rates (OLR). Results showed that AnMBR could achieve high pollutant removal (71.9-83.6 %) and energy recovery (0.18-0.23 L-CH₄/g-COD) at an OLR range of 0.25-0.5 g-COD/g-VSS.d, realizing energy production. However, higher OLR would aggravate the membrane fouling due to accumulation of fine sludge particles, organic foulants, and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) on cake layer. Based on the high-throughput sequencing, microbial communities significantly changed and fouling-causing bacteria (e.g. Pseudomonas, Methanosarcina and Methanothrix) enriched in the cake layer at higher OLR conditions, leading to lower membrane permeability. Backwash can effectively remove the cake layer from the membrane surface and recover membrane permeability. The present study provides important information about membrane fouling and microbial information that could have significant impact on large-scale AnMBR application.

Keywords: Biogas; Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS); Green energy; Methane; Waste management.

MeSH terms

Anaerobiosis
Animals
Bioreactors
Membranes, Artificial
Microbiota*
Sewage
Swine
Waste Disposal, Fluid
Wastewater*

Substances

Membranes, Artificial
Sewage
Waste Water