Impact of temperature on feed-flow characteristics and filtration performance of an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket coupled ultrafiltration membrane treating municipal wastewater

Hale Ozgun*, Yu Tao, Mustafa Evren Ersahin, Zhongbo Zhou, Juan B. Gimenez, Henri Spanjers, Jules B. van Lier

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

84 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the operational feasibility of an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR), consisting of an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor coupled to an ultrafiltration membrane unit, at two operational temperatures (25°C and 15°C) for the treatment of municipal wastewater. The results showed that membrane fouling at 15°C was more severe than that at 25°C. Higher chemical oxygen demand (COD) and soluble microbial products (SMP) concentrations, lower mean particle diameter, and higher turbidity in the UASB effluent at lower temperature aggravated membrane fouling compared to the 25°C operation. However, the overall AnMBR treatment performance was not significantly affected by temperature, which was attributed to the physical membrane barrier. Cake resistance was found responsible for over 40% of the total fouling in both cases. However, an increase was observed in the contribution of pore blocking resistance at 15°C related to the larger amount of fine particles in the UASB effluent compared to 25°C. Based on the overall results, it is concluded that an AnMBR, consisting of a UASB coupled membrane unit, is not found technically feasible for the treatment of municipal wastewater at 15°C, considering the rapid deterioration of the filtration performance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)71-83
Number of pages13
JournalWater Research
Volume83
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Oct 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords

  • Anaerobic membrane bioreactor
  • Membrane fouling
  • Municipal wastewater
  • Temperature
  • Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor

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