Membrane bioreactor process of organic wastewater from brassylic acid manufacturing plant

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Wu, Zhi-chao | Zeng, Ping | Wang, Shi-feng | Gao, Ting-yao

Affiliations: School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. E-mail: wzcwz@online.sh.cn

Abstract: The wastewater treatment from brassylic acid manufacturing plant using membrane bioreactor (MBR) was studied. The membrane bioreactor consisted of batch-operation biological aeration tank and ultrafiltration evaluation tank. The content of test included the affection of variation operation conditions on ultrafiltration separation, the general characteristics of MBR process, and the difference comparing with the conventional biological treatment. The results are as follows: (1) among the test membrane material, polyether sulphone (PES) membrane is more suitable for the wastewater treatment; (2) when the cutoff molecular weight is among 10000-50000, the higher the cutoff molecular weight, the bigger the water flux is in the test; (3) under the operation pressure, water flux increases accompanying with the increasing of operation pressure; (4) the paper filtered COD concentration has more affection on the water flux than the suspended solid concentration; (5) as the volume loading of MBR increases, the accumulation of high molecule organic substance and colloid increases, the membrane permeate COD concentration and paper filtered COD concentration increase too, meanwhile the water flux reduces; (6) when the sludge retention time of activated sludge of MBR increases, the accumulation of high molecule organic substance and colloid reduces, the membrane permeate COD concentration and paper filtered COD concentration reduce too, and the water flux increases; (7) comparing with the conventional biological process, the microbial activity is higher, but the microbial species is less.

Keywords: membranae bioreactor, biological treatment, brassylic acid wastewater

Journal: Journal of Environmental Sciences, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 157-163, 2001