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Bani-Melhem K, Elektorowicz M, Tawalbeh M, Al Bsoul A, El Gendy A, Kamyab H, Yusuf M. Integrating of electrocoagulation process with submerged membrane bioreactor for wastewater treatment under low voltage gradients. CHEMOSPHERE 2023; 339:139693. [PMID: 37536541 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.139693] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2023] [Revised: 07/15/2023] [Accepted: 07/30/2023] [Indexed: 08/05/2023]
Abstract
Treating and reusing wastewater has become an essential aspect of water management worldwide. However, the increase in emerging pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are presented in wastewater from various sources like industry, roads, and household waste, makes their removal difficult due to their low concentration, stability, and ability to combine with other organic substances. Therefore, treating a low load of wastewater is an attractive option. The study aimed to address membrane fouling in the submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR) used for wastewater treatment. An aluminum electrocoagulation (EC) device was combined with SMBR as a pre-treatment to reduce fouling. The EC-SMBR process was compared with a conventional SMBR without EC, fed with real grey water. To prevent impeding biological growth, low voltage gradients were utilized in the EC deviceThe comparison was conducted over 60 days with constant transmembrane pressure and infinite solid retention time (SRT). In phase I, when the EC device was operated at a low voltage gradient (0.64 V/cm), no significant improvement in the pollutants removal was observed in terms of color, turbidity, and chemical oxygen demand (COD). Nevertheless, during phase II, a voltage gradient of 1.26 V/cm achieved up to 100%, 99.7%, 92%, 94.1%, and 96.5% removals in the EC-SMBR process in comparison with 95.1%, 95.4%, 85%, 91.7% and 74.2% removals in the SMBR process for turbidity, color, COD, ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), total phosphorus (TP), respectively. SMBR showed better anionic surfactant (AS) removal than EC-SMBR. A voltage gradient of 0.64 V/cm in the EC unit significantly reduced fouling by 23.7%, while 1.26 V/cm showed inconsistent results. Accumulation of Al ions negatively affected membrane performance. Low voltage gradients in EC can control SMBR fouling if Al concentration is controlled. Future research should investigate EC-SMBR with constant membrane flux for large-scale applications, considering energy consumption and operating costs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Khalid Bani-Melhem
- Water Technology Unit (WTU), Center for Advanced Materials (CAM). Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar.
| | - Maria Elektorowicz
- Dept. of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, 1455 Blvd de Maisonneuve W., Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1M8, Canada
| | - Muhammad Tawalbeh
- Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering Department, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, United Arab Emirates; Sustainable Energy & Power Systems Research Centre, RISE, University of Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
| | - Abeer Al Bsoul
- Al-Balqa Applied University, Al-Huson University College, Department of Chemical Engineering, Jordan
| | - Ahmed El Gendy
- Environmental Engineering Program, Department of Construction and Architectural Engineering, School of Sciences and Engineering, The American University in Cairo, New Cairo, Egypt
| | - Hesam Kamyab
- Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, UTE University, Calle Rumipamba S/N and Bourgeois, Quito, Ecuador; Department of Biomaterials, Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai, 600 077, India; Process Systems Engineering Centre (PROSPECT), Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
| | - Mohammad Yusuf
- Institute of Hydrocarbon Recovery, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Perak, 32610, Malaysia.
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Wang Y, Yang X, Jiang Y, Dai X, Dai J, Yan Y, Dong M, Chen L. Simultaneous removal of phosphorus and soluble organic pollutants by a novel organic/inorganic nanocomposite membrane via Zr(OH)4 in-situ decoration. J Taiwan Inst Chem Eng 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jtice.2021.104165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Huang H, Yang C, He C, Hu X, Hu Z, Wang W. Combining biofilm and membrane flocculation to enhance simultaneous nutrients removal and membrane fouling reduction. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2021; 796:148922. [PMID: 34265619 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148922] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2021] [Revised: 07/04/2021] [Accepted: 07/05/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The stability and processing capacity of membrane bioreactor can be improved with long sludge retention time. However, phosphorus removal will be markedly reduced under long sludge retention time and membrane fouling will be aggravated. Adding aluminum (Al) salt is a common way to achieve chemical phosphorus removal and membrane fouling reduction. But, accumulated Al will cause the decline of metabolic activity of activated sludge. In this study, biofilm-membrane flocculation reactor was proposed to enhance simultaneous nutrients removal and membrane fouling reduction. It showed that the removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) in biofilm-membrane flocculation reactor were 95.7%, 96.7%, 87.4%, and 97.2%, respectively. Compared with the control group, accumulated Al increased extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) secretion by 1.9%-35.4%, biofilm biomass by 12.4%-26.1%, and the activities of ammonia oxidation bacteria (AOB) and nitrite oxidation bacteria (NOB) in the biofilm increased by 42.9% and 65.9%, respectively. The relative abundance of Nitrospira, Dechloromonas, and Terrimonas in the biofilm increased by 1.78%, 3.01%, and 2.88%, respectively, which was conducive to facilitating the nitrification. Therefore, biofilm-membrane flocculation reactor is a promising way for enhancing simultaneous nutrients removal and membrane fouling reduction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haibo Huang
- Department of Municipal Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China; Anhui Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Rural Water Environment and Resources, Hefei 230009, China; Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Industrial Wastewater and Environmental Treatment, Hefei 230024, China
| | - Chuanhe Yang
- Department of Municipal Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China; Anhui Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Rural Water Environment and Resources, Hefei 230009, China; Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Industrial Wastewater and Environmental Treatment, Hefei 230024, China
| | - Chunhua He
- Department of Municipal Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China; Anhui Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Rural Water Environment and Resources, Hefei 230009, China; Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Industrial Wastewater and Environmental Treatment, Hefei 230024, China.
| | - Xukun Hu
- Department of Municipal Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China; Anhui Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Rural Water Environment and Resources, Hefei 230009, China; Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Industrial Wastewater and Environmental Treatment, Hefei 230024, China
| | - Zhenhu Hu
- Department of Municipal Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China; Anhui Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Rural Water Environment and Resources, Hefei 230009, China; Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Industrial Wastewater and Environmental Treatment, Hefei 230024, China
| | - Wei Wang
- Department of Municipal Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China; Anhui Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Rural Water Environment and Resources, Hefei 230009, China; Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Industrial Wastewater and Environmental Treatment, Hefei 230024, China.
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A review of the current in-situ fouling control strategies in MBR: Biological versus physicochemical. J IND ENG CHEM 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jiec.2021.03.042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
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Asif MB, Maqbool T, Zhang Z. Electrochemical membrane bioreactors: State-of-the-art and future prospects. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2020; 741:140233. [PMID: 32570070 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140233] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2020] [Revised: 06/11/2020] [Accepted: 06/13/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Integration of an electrochemical process with membrane bioreactor (MBR) has attracted considerable attention in the last decade for simultaneous improvement in pollutant removal and hydraulic performance of MBR. Electrochemical MBR (eMBR) with sacrificial anodes has been observed to achieve enhanced phosphorus (up to 40%) and micropollutant removal (5-60%). This is because direct anodic oxidation, indirect oxidation by reactive oxygen species and electrocoagulation can supplement the biological process. The application of an electric field can substantially reduce membrane fouling by 10% to 95% in the eMBR as compared to the conventional MBR. Sacrificial electrodes (e.g., iron or aluminium) have been reported to be more suitable for fouling mitigation than non-sacrificial electrodes (e.g., titanium). However, during prolonged operation, metal ions released from sacrificial electrodes can adversely affect microbial activity and could accumulate in activated sludge. Depending on the current density and electrode material (sacrificial or non- sacrificial), anodic oxidation, electrocoagulation, electrophoresis and/or electroosmosis mechanisms are responsible for suppressing membrane fouling propensity. This paper critically reviews the current status of the electrochemical MBR technology and presents a concise summary of eMBR configurations and electrode materials. Comparative removal of bulk organics, nutrients and micropollutants in the eMBR and conventional MBR is discussed, and performance governing factors are elucidated. Impacts of operating conditions such as current density on mixed liquor properties (e.g., floc size and zeta potential) and microbial activity are elucidated. The extent of membrane fouling mitigation along with associated mechanisms as well as energy consumption is explained and critically analysed. Future research directions are suggested to fast track the scalability of eMBR, which include but are not limited to electrode lifetime, development of self-cleaning conductive membranes, optimisation of operating parameters, removal of emerging micropollutants, accumulation of toxic metals in activated sludge, and degradation by-products and ecotoxicity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Muhammad Bilal Asif
- Institute of Environmental Engineering & Nano-Technology, Tsinghua-Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China; Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center for Urban Water Recycling and Environmental Safety, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China; School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Tahir Maqbool
- Institute of Environmental Engineering & Nano-Technology, Tsinghua-Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China; Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center for Urban Water Recycling and Environmental Safety, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China; School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Zhenghua Zhang
- Institute of Environmental Engineering & Nano-Technology, Tsinghua-Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China; Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center for Urban Water Recycling and Environmental Safety, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China; School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
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