Study of Track-Etched Submerged Membrane Bioreactor for Domestic Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

This study was done to determine the feasibility of using track-etched membranes (TEMs) in submerged membrane bioreactors (MBR) for the treatment of domestic wastewater. The results obtained in this study illustrate the influence of membrane characteristics on membrane fouling as well as on the organic and nitrogen removal performance of the submerged MBRs for treating domestic wastewater. Membrane characteristics such as membrane pore size, membrane surface charge, porosity and membrane hydrophobicity were investigated.Carbonaceous and nitrogen removal of the track-etched membranes were satisfactory with an average carbonaceous removal of more than 85% and an average nitrogen removal of 10% for MBR 1 and 15% for MBR 2. Nitrification performance was excellent as was the turbidity of the membrane permeates. Further investigation is suggested on chemical cleaning of fouled membrane as in this study, permeate fluxes of membranes were observed to increase after chemical cleaning which suggested that chemical cleaning might affect the integrity of the membrane.