Forward osmosis membrane bioreactor for wastewater treatment with phosphorus recovery

A Review on Opportunities and Limitations of Membrane Bioreactor Configuration in Biofuel Production

Biofuels are a clean and renewable source of energy that has gained more attention in recent years; however, high energy input and processing cost during the production and recovery process restricted its progress. Membrane technology offers a range of energy-saving separation for product recovery and purification in biorefining along with biofuel production processes. Membrane separation techniques in combination with different biological processes increase cell concentration in the bioreactor, reduce product inhibition, decrease chemical consumption, reduce energy requirements, and further increase product concentration and productivity. Certain membrane bioreactors have evolved with the ability to deal with different biological production and separation processes to make them cost-effective, but there are certain limitations. The present review describes the advantages and limitations of membrane bioreactors to produce different biofuels with the ability to simplify upstream and downstream processes in terms of sustainability and economics.

Anaerobic biofilm enriched with an ammonia tolerant methanogenic consortium to improve wastewater treatment in the fishing industry

The digestion efficiency of liquid industrial wastes increases when using bioreactors colonized by microbial biofilms. High concentrations of proteins derived from the fish processing industry lead to the production of ammonia, which inhibits methane production. Two bioreactors were constructed to compare methanogenic activity: one enriched with mMPA (methylaminotrofic methane production archaea) consortia (control bioreactor), and the second with NH₃ tolerant consortia (treatment bioreactor). Ammonia tolerant activity was assessed by applying an ammonia shock (755 mg NH₃/L). Methane production, consumption of total organic carbon (TOC) and the taxonomic composition of bacteria and archaea was evaluated using 16S rDNA in the acclimatization, ammonia shock, and recovery phases.The ammonia shock significantly affected both methane production and the consumption of TOC in the control reactor (p < 0.05) and taxonomical composition of the microbial consortia (OTU). These values remained constant in the treatment reactor. The analysis of biofilm composition showed a predominance of Methanosarcinaceae (Methanomethylovorans sp., and probably two different species of Methanosarcina sp.) in bioreactors. These results demonstrate that using acclimated biofilms enriched with ammonia tolerant methanogens control the inhibitory effect of ammonia on methanogenesis.

Physico-chemical and biological treatment strategies for converting municipal wastewater and its residue to resources

An increase in urbanization and industrialization has not only contributed to an improvement in the lifestyle of people, but it has also contributed to a surge in the generation of wastewater. To date, conventional physico-chemical and biological treatment methods are widely used for the treatment of wastewater. However, the efficient operation of these systems require substantial operation and maintenance costs, and the application of novel technologies for the treatment and disposal of sludge/residues. This review paper focuses on the application of different treatment options such as chemical, catalyst-based, thermochemical and biological processes for wastewater or sludge treatment and membrane-based technologies (i.e. pressure-driven and non-pressure driven) for the separation of the recovered products from wastewater and its residues. As evident from the literature, a wide variety of treatment and resource recovery options are possible, both from wastewater and its residues; however, the lack of planning and selecting the most appropriate design (treatment train) to scale up from pilot to the field scale has limited its practical application. The economic feasibility of the selected technologies was critically analyzed and the future research prospects of resource recovery from wastewater have been outlined in this review.

Enhancing the water flux and biological treatment in bilateral influent submerged FOMBR via applying the strategy of intermittent discharging salt

The forward osmotic membrane bioreactor (FOMBR) is an emerging innovative technology with broad application prospects in the field of wastewater treatment. Its application is severely limited by concentration polarization, salinity accumulation, and evident water flux decline. Gradual salinity accumulation to a maximum conductivity of 19.7 mS cm^-1 under continuous flow operation suppressed the activities of sludge and biodegradation efficiencies. The employment of the regulation of intermittent supernatant discharge was first investigated to alleviate inhibition caused via accumulated salinity in the bioreactor, and bilateral influent was examined with respect to the performance of the FOMBR. The preferable condition to be applied was FO orientation mode (i.e. active layer facing feed) with spacers added to the surface. Given the decreased salt concentration with 2 L of the supernatant removed per day, the water flux declined more slowly and sludge activities were recovered. When compared to the performance without discharging supernatant, the strategy of controlling salinity could improve the removal efficiencies of NH₄⁺-N, PO₄^3--P, and total organic carbon (TOC) by 15.1, 14.3, and 2.3%, respectively. Additionally, the sludge in the intermittent supernatant discharge bioreactor exhibited better sludge property, larger sludge particle size, and recovered sludge activities with the mixed liquid suspended solids (MLSS) stable at around 4.90 g L^-1. Therefore, regulation of intermittent salt discharge and controlling the salinity concentration in bioreactor can be employed as an effective method to deal with concentration polarization and salinity accumulation in the FOMBR.

Application of membrane separation processes in phosphorus recovery: A review

The depletion of phosphorus resources and the excess discharge of phosphorus into waste streams are contrasting problems. The key to solving both problems is to recover phosphorus from the waste streams. Current phosphorus recovery technologies require high phosphorus concentrations and lack the ability to separate toxic substances from recovered phosphorus products. Membrane separation processes such as nanofiltration, forward osmosis, and electrodialysis are examples of effective methods for solving some of these issues. In this paper, the mechanisms, performance, and influential factors affect phosphorus recovery from membrane separation are reviewed. Membrane fouling, energy consumption, and the selectivity of toxic substances in membrane separation processes were evaluated. This work will serve as a basis for future research and development of phosphorus recovery by membrane separation processes and as a response to the increasingly pressing issues of eutrophication and the growing depletion of phosphorus resources.

Forward osmosis membrane technology for nutrient removal/recovery from wastewater: Recent advances, proposed designs, and future directions

In recent years, the concept of nutrient removal/recovery has been applied as a sustainable solution to develop and design various modern wastewater treatment technologies for recovering nutrients from waste streams and is one of the high-priority research areas. Forward osmosis (FO) technology has received increasing interests as a potential low-fouling membrane process and a new approach to remove/recover nutrients from wastewater and sludge. The main objective of this review is to summarize the state of FO technology for nutrient removal/recovery from wastewater and sludge in order to identify areas of future improvements. In this study, nutrient removal processes, FO membrane technology, main factors affecting the FO process performance, the source water for nutrient recovery, the previous studies on the FO membrane process for nutrient removal/recovery from wastewater and sludge, membrane fouling, and recent advances in FO membranes for nutrient removal/recovery were briefly and critically reviewed. Then, the proposed possible designs to apply FO process in conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) were theoretically presented. Finally, based on the gaps identified in the area, challenges ahead, future perspectives, and conclusions were discussed. Further investigations on the properties of FO associated with real wastewater, wastewater pre-treatment, the long-term low fouling operation, membrane cleaning strategies, water flux and the economic feasibility of the FO process are still desirable to apply FO technology for nutrient removal/recovery at full-scale (decentralized or centralized) in the future.

Bioelectrochemically-assisted nitrogen removal in osmotic membrane bioreactor

Nitrogen removal in osmosis membrane bioreactor (OMBR) is important to its applications but remains a challenge. In this study, a bioelectrochemically-assisted (BEA) operation was integrated into the feed side of OMBRs to enhance nitrogen removal, and sodium acetate was served as a draw solute and supplementary carbon source for the growth of denitrifying bacteria due to reversed-solute. The effects of operation mode and influent ammonium (NH₄ ⁺) concentration were systematically examined. Compared to a conventional OMBR, the integrated BEA-OMBR achieved higher total nitrogen removal efficiency of 98.13%, and chemical oxygen demand removal efficiency of 95.83% with the influent NH₄ ⁺-N concentration of 39 mg L^-1. The sequencing analyses revealed that ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (0-0.04%), nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (0-0.16%), and denitrifying bacteria (1.98-8.65%) were in abundance of the microbial community in the feed/anode side of integrated BEA-OMBR, and thus BEA operation increased the diversity of the microbial community in OMBR. Future research will focus on improving nitrogen removal from a high ammonium strength wastewater by looping anolyte effluent to the cathode. These findings have demonstrated that BEA operation can be an effective approach to improve nitrogen removal in OMBRs toward sustainable wastewater treatment.

Pressure retarded osmosis coupled with activated sludge process for wastewater treatment: Performance and fouling behaviors

A novel hybrid technology integrating pressure retarded osmosis with activated sludge process (denoted as PRO-MBR) was proposed in this study for wastewater treatment. Here, performance and fouling behaviors of PRO-MBR were investigated. Excellent contaminants removal and power production were simultaneously achieved in the PRO-MBR. A significant drop of water flux in the PRO-MBR was mainly due to the severe fouling of the support layer in forward osmosis (FO) membrane including internal fouling and external fouling. Although the external fouling was identified to be the major type of fouling, the internal fouling dominated the overall decline of water flux. In addition, organic foulants and biofoulants were the dominant foulants for the external fouling while inorganic foulants were equal to organic foulants and biofoulants for the internal fouling. According to the variations of water flux in the PRO-MBR, the development of support layer fouling was divided into three stages.

Enhancing the removal efficiency of osmotic membrane bioreactors: A comprehensive review of influencing parameters and hybrid configurations

The amount of research conducted on osmotic membrane bioreactors (OMBRs) has increased over the past decade because of the advantages of these reactors over conventional membrane bioreactors (MBRs). OMBR process is a hybrid process involving a forward osmosis membrane and biologically activated sludge. It is a promising technology to reduce membrane fouling, enhance effluent water quality, and lower energy consumption compared to conventional MBR processes. Eleven years since the OMBR process was first proposed, about 60 papers regarding the OMBR process have been published. In this article, we address recent advances in OMBR technology based on a review of the literature. Typical factors that influence the performance of the OMBR process are discussed to provide a clear understanding of the current state of this technology. We also provide a critical review of OMBR applications in organic matter, nutrient, and micropollutant removal as well as direct recovery of nutrients from wastewater. We propose several hybrid configurations that can enhance the removal efficiency of OMBR systems. Finally, we present potential research directions for future OMBR research.

Forward osmosis membrane processes for wastewater bioremediation: Research needs

Increasing research and development works have been made to develop forward osmosis (FO) processes as a cost-effective substitute for energy intensive water vacuum suction facility in submerged membrane bioreactor (MBR) applications. Perceived to be a spontaneous water driven process without external applied pressures, the FO has been applied in lab and pilot scales for wastewater bioremediation. This paper reviewed the state-of-the-art developments on the FO unit, the process, and ways of enhancing process performance, particularly on the aspects of flux enhancement, flow resistance reduction, and draw solute with low reverse salt diffusion, which are relevant to enhanced osmotic MBR performance. The perspective to realize the use of FO processes in revision of currently existing energy intensive osmotic MBR processes is discussed with research needs being highlighted.

Integration of aerobic granular sludge and membrane bioreactors for wastewater treatment

Environmental deterioration together with the need for water reuse and the increasingly restrictive legislation of water quality standards have led to a demand for compact, efficient and less energy consuming technologies for wastewater treatment. Aerobic granular sludge and membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are two technologies with several advantages, such as small footprint, high-microbial density and activity, ability to operate at high organic- and nitrogen-loading rates, and tolerance to toxicity. However, they also have some disadvantages. The aerobic granular sludge process generally requires post-treatment in order to fulfill effluent standards and MBRs suffer from fouling of the membranes. Integrating the two technologies could be a way of combining the advantages and addressing the main problems associated with both processes. The use of membranes to separate the aerobic granules from the treated water would ensure high-quality effluents suitable for reuse. Moreover, the use of granular sludge in MBRs has been shown to reduce fouling. Several recent studies have shown that the aerobic granular membrane bioreactor (AGMBR) is a promising hybrid process with many attractive features. However, major challenges that have to be addressed include how to achieve granulation and maintain granular stability during continuous operation of reactors. This paper aims to review the current state of research on AGMBR technology while drawing attention to relevant findings and highlight current limitations.

The potential of hybrid forward osmosis membrane bioreactor (FOMBR) processes in achieving high throughput treatment of municipal wastewater with enhanced phosphorus recovery

Extensive research in recent years has explored numerous new features in the forward osmosis membrane bioreactor (FOMBR) process. However, there is an aspect, which is revolutionary but not yet been investigated. In FOMBR, FO membrane shows high rejection for a wide range of soluble contaminants. As a result, hydraulic retention time (HRT) does not correctly reflect the nominal retention of these dissolved contaminants in the bioreactor. This decoupling of contaminants retention time (CRT, i.e. the nominal retention of the dissolved contaminants) from HRT endows FOMBR a potential in significantly reducing the HRT for wastewater treatment. In this work, we report our results in this unexplored treatment potential. Using real municipal wastewater as feed, both a hybrid microfiltration-forward osmosis membrane bioreactor (MF-FOMBR) and a newly developed hybrid biofilm-forward osmosis membrane bioreactor (BF-FOMBR) achieved high removal of organic matter and nitrogen under HRT of down to 2.0 h, with significantly enhanced phosphorus recovery capacities. In the BF-FOMBR, the used of fixed bed biofilm not only obviated the need of additional solid/liquid separation (e.g. MF) to extract the side-stream for salt accumulation control and phosphorus recovery, but effectively quarantined the biomass from the FO membrane. The absence of MF in the side-stream further allowed suspended growth to be continuously removed from the system, which produced a selection pressure for the predominance of attached growth. As a result, a significant reduction in FO membrane fouling (by 24.7-54.5%) was achieved in the BF-FOMBR due to substantially reduced bacteria deposition and colonization.

Towards high through-put biological treatment of municipal wastewater and enhanced phosphorus recovery using a hybrid microfiltration-forward osmosis membrane bioreactor with hydraulic retention time in sub-hour level

This work uncovers an important feature of the forward osmosis membrane bioreactor (FOMBR) process: the decoupling of contaminants retention time (CRT) and hydraulic retention time (HRT). Based on this concept, the capability of the hybrid microfiltration-forward osmosis membrane bioreactor (MF-FOMBR) in achieving high through-put treatment of municipal wastewater with enhanced phosphorus recovery was explored. High removal of TOC and NH4(+)-N (90% and 99%, respectively) was achieved with HRTs down to 47min, with the treatment capacity increased by an order of magnitude. Reduced HRT did not affect phosphorus removal and recovery. As a result, the phosphorus recovery capacity was also increased by the same order. Reduced HRT resulted in increased system loading rates and thus elevated concentrations of mixed liquor suspended solids and increased membrane fouling. 454-pyrosequecing suggested the thriving of Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria (especially Sphingobacteriales Flavobacteriales and Thiothrix members), as well as the community succession and dynamics of ammonium oxidizing and nitrite oxidizing bacteria.

Aerobic granular processes: Current research trends

Aerobic granules are large biological aggregates with compact interiors that can be used in efficient wastewater treatment. This mini-review presents new researches on the development of aerobic granular processes, extended treatments for complicated pollutants, granulation mechanisms and enhancements of granule stability in long-term operation or storage, and the reuse of waste biomass as renewable resources. A discussion on the challenges of, and prospects for, the commercialization of aerobic granular process is provided.