Wastewater submerged membrane bioreactors

Sridang, P.C., Pottier, A., Wisniewski, C., and Grasmick, A., Performance and microbial surveying in submerged membrane bioreactor for seafood processing wastewater treatment, Journal of Membrane Science, 317,43-49, 2008. 

Yang W, Cicek N (2008) Treatment of swine wastewater by submerged membrane bioreactors with consideration of estrogenic activity removal. Desalination 231 200-208... 

Wen X, Ding H, Huang X, Liu R (2004) Treatment of hospital wastewater using a submerged membrane bioreactor. Process Biochem 39 1427-1431... 

Some of the largest plants for seawater desalination, wastewater treatment and gas separation are already based on membrane engineering. For example, the Ashkelon Desalination Plant for seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO), in Israel, has been fully operational since December 2005 and produces more than 100 million m3 of desalinated water per year. One of the largest submerged membrane bioreactor unit in the world was recently built in Porto Marghera (Italy) to treat tertiary water. The growth in membrane installations for water treatment in the past decade has resulted in a decreased cost of desalination facilities, with the consequence that the cost of the reclaimed water for membrane plants has also been reduced. 

G. Guglielmi, D. Chiarani, S.J. Judd, and G. Andreottola, Flux criticality and sustainability in a hollow fibre submerged membrane bioreactor for municipal wastewater treatment, J. Membr. Sci., 289 (2007) 241-248. 

Fan, F. S., Zhou, H. D. (2007). Interrelated effects of aeration and mixed liquor fractions on membrane fouling for submerged membrane bioreactor processes in wastewater treatment. Environmental Science Technology, 41(7), 2523-2528. 

Artiga P, Ficara E, Malpei F, Garrido J M and Mdndez R (2005), Treatment of two industrial wastewaters in a submerged membrane bioreactor , Desalination, 179,161-169. 

The major market for membrane bioreactors is represented by wastewater treatment with the use of submerged modules configuration. These are considered among the best available technologies by the European Directives on Environment. Membrane bioreactors are also applied in food, red and white biotechnology. In these cases, the external loop configuration is used. 

FIG. 22-45 Membrane bioreactor configurations for wastewater treatment, (a) With sidestream module (b) with submerged module. 

Witzig R, Manz W, Rosenberger S, Kruger U, Kraume M, and Szewzyk U. Microbiological aspects of a bioreactor with submerged membranes for aerobic treatment of municipal wastewater. Water Res. 2002 36 394-402. 

Tire Zee Weed submerged-membrane technology and equipment for the project was provided by GE Water. Process Technologies. GE s Zee Weed membrane bioreactor systems combine ultiafiltration technology w ith biological treatment for municipal, commercial and industrial wastewater treatment and water reuse applications,... 

J.H. Choi, S. Dockko, K. Fukushi, K. Yamamoto, A novel application of a submerged nanofiltration membrane bioreactor (NFMBR) for wastewater treatment, Desalination 2002, 146, 413 20. 

Gimenez, J. B., Robles, A., Carretero, L., Duran, F., Ruano, M. V., Gatti, M. N., et al. (2011). Experimental study of the anaerobic urban wastewater treatment in a submerged hoUow-fibre membrane bioreactor at pilot scale. Bioresource Technology, 102, 8799—8806. 

Lin, H., Chen, J., Wang, F., Ding, L., Hong, H. (2011). Peasibriity evaluation of submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor for municipal secondary wastewater treatment. Desalination, 280, 120—126. 

The early references to submerged membranes came from Japan. Ohkubo et al. (1988) obtained a patent describing hollow fibers in a vertical bundle in a vessel with air scour to vibrate the fibers to remove the cake. The first reported use of submerged hollow fibers in a wastewater membrane bioreactor (MBR) was by Yamamoto et al. (1989), who used fibers in a bundle and air bubbles for aeration, mixing, and induced liquid flow. Permeate was removed by suction. At that time the concept was more of a curiosity, but within a decade the submerged membrane has become the dominant approach for low-pressure membrane processing in the water and wastewater industry. 

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