High strength municipal wastewater treatment using a jet loop anaerobic bioreactor with external cross flow membrane filtration (JLAMBR)

Abstract

This study investigated whether or not the complete treatment of high strength municipal wastewater of arid countries through a jet loop anaerobic membrane bioreactor is possible, and whether the treatment could make the wastewater as well as its ingredients available for further material recycling or energy recovery. The experiment was conduct with glucose-based wastewater of 400–600 mg DOC/L (1,000–1,500 mg COD/L). The results of the experiment showed that the effluent concentration of the system was always below 30 mg DOC (75 mg COD/L and 60 mg BOD/L)/L (the total degradation efficiency of 95%) at the steady state and an average biogas of 0.42 m³/kg COD_eliminated could be produced. So it was found that organic ingredients of municipal wastewater in arid countries dose not solely present pollutants to be treated, but can serve as a resource. But the performance of the membrane filtration fell short of expectations because of the high portion of the finest particle (90% of sludge particle (X₉₀) < 5.2 μm).

Keywords:

• High strength municipal wastewater treatment
• Jet loop anaerobic bioreactor
• External cross flow membrane filtration

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the financial support of EU (INCO-MED ICA3-CT-1999-00013, KOSEF (Korea Science and Technology Foundation) and the DFG (German Research Foundation) for this research.