Feasibility of Lab-Scale Vacuum-Driven Submerged Hollow Fiber Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor (Sanmbr) for the Treatment of Synthetic Acidified Wastewater

Abstract

An anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) is a biological treatment process which uses a membrane for solid-liquid separation in wastewater treatment. The present research studied the application of a lab-scale vacuum-driven submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor (SAnMBR) with polypropylene hollow fiber membranes in treating synthetic acidified wastewater. The reactor with a working volume of 6.75 to 7 L was operated at mesophilic temperature (35 +/- 1 degrees C) for 120 days. The area of the polypropylene membrane module was 0.1 m(2). The reactor was fed with synthetic wastewater of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) in the range of COD between 1000 to 6000 mg/L. Organic loading rate increased from 0.4437 to 4.45 kg/m(3)/day during the operation period. Average COD removal was 96.33 at a HRT of 1.5 days. Maximum COD removal was 99.6 at a HRT of 4.5 days, and at which influent COD of 6000 mg/L was reduced to 17.11 mg/L. The average of fluxes in this bioreactor was 6.3086 L/m(2).h. Turbidity of the effluent was often less than 5 NTU. TSS and VSS of the effluent were very low, and constituted only a small part of total solids (TS). The results of this research showed that a submerged anaerobic hollow fiber membrane bioreactor (SAnMBR) is effective in treating wastewaters with low to middle concentration of organic materials. Also low amounts of suspended solids in the effluent made this bioreactor very suitable for treating industrial wastewaters with high amounts of suspended solids.