Sustainable organic loading rate and energy recovery potential of mesophilic anaerobic membrane bioreactor for municipal wastewater treatment

Chunhai Wei, Moustapha Harb, Gary L. Amy, Pei-Ying Hong, TorOve Leiknes

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

82 Scopus citations

Abstract

The overall performance of a mesophilic anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) for synthetic municipal wastewater treatment was investigated under a range of organic loading rate (OLR). A very steady and high chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal (around 98%) was achieved over a broad range of volumetric OLR of 0.8-10gCOD/L/d. The sustainable volumetric and sludge OLR satisfying a permeate COD below 50mg/L for general reuse was 6gCOD/L/d and 0.63gCOD/gMLVSS (mixed liquor volatile suspended solids)/d, respectively. At a high sludge OLR of over 0.6gCOD/gMLVSS/d, the AnMBR achieved high methane production of over 300ml/gCOD (even approaching the theoretical value of 382ml/gCOD). A low biomass production of 0.015-0.026gMLVSS/gCOD and a sustainable flux of 6L/m2/h were observed. The integration of a heat pump and forward osmosis into the mesophilic AnMBR process would be a promising way for net energy recovery from typical municipal wastewater in a temperate area. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)326-334
Number of pages9
JournalBioresource Technology
Volume166
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2014

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Bioengineering
  • Environmental Engineering
  • Waste Management and Disposal

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