Novel membrane bioreactor system using combination of an intermittent electric field and moving biomedia for treatment of genuine wastewater

ABSTRACT

This work presented an endeavour to evolve a novel membrane bioreactor that merges an electro bioreactor (EMBR) and moving biomedia (moving bed) aiming for enhancing the biological treatment and alleviating membrane fouling. Nanocomposite membranes comprise disparate contents of ZnONPs were prepared and the one with optimum performance was harnessed for the prolonged operations. Results revealed that the mean pore size, pore size distribution, roughness parameters and contact angle measurements were declined upon the addition of ZnO-NPs. In the meantime, the permeate flux was improved by 357% at 1.5 g ZnO-NPs loading weight. Combining the biological, membrane and electrochemical processes into one EMBR system has mitigated the inherent membrane fouling by 90%, whereas this percent went further and reached more than 94% with the presence of the electric field and moving bed. The EMBBR systems have showcased a worthy enhancement in their retention capacity, and were capable to achieve 88%, 90% and 95% retention against NO₃, PO₄-P and COD, respectively. Likewise, during the membrane long-term operation, a sustained stable permeate flux up to 51 days was witnesses while the membrane has operated for continuous 113 days prior to cleaning.

KEYWORDS:

• MBR
• electro-membrane bioreactor
• EMBBR
• genuine wastewater
• antifouling
• nanocomposite membranes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the We have no funder for the present article [no funder].