Effect of macroporous adsorption resin-membrane bioreactor hybrid system against fouling for municipal wastewater treatment

A review on hybrid membrane-adsorption systems for intensified water and wastewater treatment: Process configurations, separation targets, and materials applied

In the era of rapid and conspicuous progress of water treatment technologies, combined adsorption and membrane filtration systems have gained great attention as a novel and efficient method for contaminant removal from aqueous phase. Further development of these techniques for water/wastewater treatment applications will be promising for the recovery of water resources as well as reducing the water tension throughout the world. This review introduces the state-of-the-art on the capabilities of the combined adsorption-membrane filtration systems for water and wastewater treatment applications. Technical information including employed materials, superiorities, operational limitations, process sustainability and upgradeing strategies for two general configurations i.e. hybrid (pre-adsorption and post-adsorption) and integrated (film adsorbents, low pressure membrane-adsorption coupling and membrane-adsorption bioreactors) systems has been surveyed and presented. Having a systematic look at the fundamentals of hybridization/integration of the two well-established and efficient separation methods as well as spotlighting the current status and prospectives of the combination strategies, this work will be valuable to all the interested researchers working on design and development of cutting-edge wastewater/water treatment techniques. This review also draws a clear roadmap for either decision making and choosing the best alternative for a specific target in water treatment or making a plan for further enhancement and scale-up of an available strategy.

Promotion and mechanisms of Bdellovibrio sp. Y38 on membrane fouling alleviation in membrane bioreactor

Membrane fouling is a major bottleneck limiting the widespread application of membrane bioreactors (MBR). In this study, Bdellovibrio sp. Y38, an obligate bacteriophage bacterium of Bdellovibrio-and-like organisms (BALOs), was enriched into highly concentrated culture medium (10⁶-10⁷ PFU/mL), and daily dosed into the MBR to investigate its effects on membrane fouling mitigation. The strain Y38 prolonged the membrane fouling cycle from 73 days to 90 days, indicating its membrane fouling alleviation potentials. The concentration of BALOs was increased 625 times higher than the control group after the whole operation, resulting in the concentration of chemical oxygen demand and nucleic acids in the liquid phase of the MBR system being significantly increased by 169.8 ± 1.5% and 126.7 ± 2.2%, respectively. The biomass growth rate was reduced by 27.2 ± 0.7% from day 0 to day 54. These results indicated the predation potential of Bdellovibrio sp. Y38 on the microorganisms in the sludge. The improvement of homogenized sludge and filtration and settling performance by the strain Y38 alleviated the membrane fouling. Compared with the control group, the macromolecular proteins in SMP and EPS were partially declined, and the polysaccharide in EPS decreased by 14.0 ± 3.9%, and the ratios of protein content to polysaccharide content (PN/PS) in SMP and EPS significantly increased by 35.6 ± 16.8% and 57.8 ± 6.1% at the middle stage, respectively, indicating the strain Y38 could alleviate membrane fouling by reducing and modifying SMP and EPS. Furthermore, the relative abundance of γ-proteobacteria decreased from 13.2% to 5.1% at the pre-middle stage, and Planctomycetes decreased from 1.5% to 0.8% at the end-stage, which were probably responsible for the membrane fouling mitigation. In addition, the strain Y38 had few impacts on the water treatment performance of MBR. There findings provide a promising strategy for in situ membrane pollution mitigation via exogenous additions of BALOs.

Role of nano-Fe3O4 particle on improving membrane bioreactor (MBR) performance: Alleviating membrane fouling and microbial mechanism

This study would investigate the effect of nano-Fe3O4 particles on the performance of membrane bioreactor (MBR), including membrane fouling, membrane rejection and microbial community. It can effectively alleviate membrane fouling and improve the effluent quality in MBR by bio-effect rather than nanoparticle adsorption. The lowest membrane fouling resistance was achieved at R4-MBR (sludge and membrane surface with nano-Fe3O4), which decreased by 46.08%. Meanwhile, R3-MBR (sludge with nano-Fe3O4) had the lowest concentration of COD in effluent which was below 20 mg/L in the stable phase of MBR operation. After applying nano-Fe3O4, the content of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and soluble microbial products (SMP) were both reduced with a lower molecular weight. From the microbial community analysis, the abundance of Proteobacteria increased from 25.06 to 45.11% at the phylum level in R3-MBR. It contributed to removing organic substances in MBRs. Moreover, the nano-Fe3O4 restricted Bacteroidetes growth, especially in R4-MBR, leading to a more excellent performance of membrane flux. Besides, the applied nano-Fe3O4 promoted the abundance of Quorum Quenching (QQ) microorganism, and declined the percentage of Quorum Sensing (QS) bacteria. Then, a lower content of N-Acyl-l-Homoserine Lactones (AHLs) in containing nano-Fe3O4 sludge. That was also prone to control membrane fouling. Overall, this study indicates the nano-Fe3O4 particle is appropriate for elevating MBR performance, such as membrane fouling and effluent quality, by bio-effect.

Treatment of isopropanol wastewater in an anaerobic fluidized bed microbial fuel cell filled with macroporous adsorptive resin as multifunctional biocarrier

The isopropanol (IPA) wastewater was treated in an anaerobic fluidized bed microbial fuel cell (AFB-MFC) filled with macroporous adsorptive resin (MAR) particles as multifunctional biocarrier. MAR was used as a biological carriers and adsorbent. MAR was characterized by scanning electron microscope. The diffusion of isopropanol in MAR was studied by Materials Studio (MS) software, and diffusion coefficients were analyzed and calculated by molecular dynamics simulation. The simulation results were qualitatively consistent with the available experimental data. The diffusivity of IPA in MAR increased firstly, with the increasing IPA weight, and then decreased. The maximum diffusivity was resulted to be 0.3722 Å²/ps. In addition, the response surface methodology (RSM) and Box-Behnken design were used to study the effects of initial IPA concentration, flow rate and external resistance on performance of power output and pollutant degradation. The optimal experimental condition was observed as initial IPA concentration of 483.49 mg/L, a flow rate of 57.70 mL/min, and external resistance of 5225.78 Ω. After 21 h of operation under the optimized conditions, the maximum power density was 135.73 ± 0.17 mW/m² and the COD removal was 68.21 ± 0.24%, which increased by 65.85% and 9.29%, respectively.

Fabrication of hierarchical layer-by-layer membrane as the photocatalytic degradation of foulants and effective mitigation of membrane fouling for wastewater treatment

A polyvinylidene fluoride plate sheet membrane coated 3D TiO₂/poly (sodium styrenesulfonate) (PSS) photocatalyst layers were fabricated via dip-coating layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly. Cationic TiO₂ and anionic PSS were alternately stacked on the support membrane via electrostatic interactions. The obtained modified membrane with (TiO₂/PSS)₇ exhibited optimal versatility under ultraviolet light irradiation in both dead-end and membrane reactor, which showed superior Lanasol Blue 3R (LB) removal rate to membrane filtration and biodegradation. The modified membranes (MM) exhibited good performance in terms of photocatalytic activity of foulant degradation and mitigation of membrane fouling in a membrane reactor. The obtained MM with (TiO₂/PSS)₇ exhibited optimal versatility under ultraviolet light irradiation in both dead-end and membrane reactors and superior Lanasol Blue 3R removal rate in membrane filtration and biodegradation. The MM (TiO₂/PSS)₇ possessed excellent antifouling properties by using bovine serum albumin (BSA), as evidenced by the extended Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek theory. Additionally, the TiO₂/PSS membrane showed good self-cleaning ability, and the foulants on the membrane surface could be degraded using ultraviolet light irradiation.

Suppression of membrane fouling in the ceramic membrane bioreactor (CMBR) by minute electric field

Three ceramic MBRs (CMBR) installed with varied electrodes, i.e. Cu, Ti and Fe, were operated in parallel under the minute electric field to evaluate their suppression effect on membrane fouling, by comparison with control CMBR. Fe-CMBR released Fe²⁺ continuously to induce a higher organic removal efficiency and a smooth fouling rate. There was significant electric-flocculation effect in the Fe-CMBR, reflected by the increased sludge particle size and zeta potential, and to improve sludge filterability. Application of minute electric field could also affect the CMBR supernatant organic content and components, which was another reason for fouling mitigation. The formed membrane fouling layer was more easily to be detached by simple backwashing in all electric CMBRs, since that there were significant electric repulsive force to prevent foulants deposition.

Design of an enhanced SAT using the graphene-MAR mixture for the removal of 17β-E2 at a demonstration site of Qianjin farm in China

An adsorption-enhanced soil aquifer treatment (SAT) system was designed to reduce the level of estrogens below the threshold stipulated by the standards. The 17β-E2 adsorption by graphene and MARs (H103) was investigated and an optimum amount of graphene and MARs in the mixture was determined using the linear programming. The kinetics and isotherm characteristics of both adsorbents were well described by the Lagergren pseudo-second order and the Freundlich model, respectively. The 17β-E2 adsorption on graphene and H103 was 88% and 70.37%, and the high temperature was beneficial to the 17β-E2 adsorption on graphene while the thermodynamic behaviors of H103 were in direct contrast to that of graphene. The study found that the maximum economic benefits could be achieved when the mass of graphene and H103 in the mixture is 2.79 g and 13.20 kg, respectively.

Effect of magnetic powder on membrane fouling mitigation and microbial community/composition in membrane bioreactors (MBRs) for municipal wastewater treatment

This study aims to investigate the usefulness of magnetic powder addition in membrane bioreactors (MBRs) for membrane fouling mitigation and its effect on microbial community and composition. The comparison between the two MBRs (one with magnetic powder (MAS-MBR) and one without magnetic powder (C-MBR)) was carried out to treat synthetic municipal wastewater. Results showed that bioflocculation and adsorption of magnetic powder contributed only minimally to membrane fouling mitigation while the slower fouling rate might be ascribed to magnetic bio-effect. The macromolecules (larger than 500 kDa and 300-500 kDa) of soluble microbial product from the MAS-MBR were reduced by 24.06% and 11.11%, respectively. High-throughput sequencing demonstrated the most abundant genera of biofilm sludge indicated lower abundance in bulk sludge from the MAS-MBR compared to the C-MBR. It is possible that less membrane fouling is connected to reductions in large molecules and pioneer bacteria from bulk sludge.