Effect of psychrophilic temperature shocks on a gas-lift anaerobic membrane bioreactor (Gl-AnMBR) treating synthetic domestic wastewater

•Gl-AnMBR showed satisfactory robustness suitable for decentralized wastewater treatment.•Membrane maintained high quality effluent despite decreased microbial activity at 15°C shocks.•Almost 50% of overall CH4 production dissolved in the effluent at 15°C shocks, while only 3% at 35°C.•Accumulation...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of water process engineering 2017-04, Vol.16, p.108-114
Main Authors: Dolejs, Petr, Ozcan, Onur, Bair, Robert, Ariunbaatar, Javhklan, Bartacek, Jan, Lens, Piet N.L., Yeh, Daniel H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Dissolved methane
Gas-lift anaerobic membrane bioreactor
Mesophilic
Psychrophilic
Temperature shocks
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:•Gl-AnMBR showed satisfactory robustness suitable for decentralized wastewater treatment.•Membrane maintained high quality effluent despite decreased microbial activity at 15°C shocks.•Almost 50% of overall CH4 production dissolved in the effluent at 15°C shocks, while only 3% at 35°C.•Accumulation of organics in sludge bed was observed at psychrophilic conditions. Municipal wastewater is a renewable resource containing energy, nutrients and water. These valuables can be recovered via new, innovative technologies such as the gas-lift anaerobic membrane bioreactor (Gl-AnMBR), which is especially suitable for decentralized wastewater treatment. To better understand the effects of fluctuating environmental conditions on the treatment performance, the impact of short-term temperature shocks was studied. We present a laboratory study of a 10L Gl-AnMBR equipped with an external tubular ultrafiltration membrane treating synthetic domestic wastewater at mesophilic (35°C) conditions with a series of short-term (12–48h) cold (15°C) shocks applied prior to switching to psychrophilic (15°C) conditions. The average COD removal under mesophilic conditions was as high as 94±2%, even during the temperature shocks. Under psychrophilic conditions, more than 80% of the influent COD accumulated in the reactor (compared to 39% under mesophilic conditions). The results suggest that an abrupt and short-term temperature decrease from 35 to 15°C can largely be absorbed by our system with no negative effect on effluent quality.
ISSN:2214-7144
2214-7144
DOI:10.1016/j.jwpe.2016.12.005