Fouling Mitigation and Wastewater Treatment Enhancement through the Application of an Electro Moving Bed Membrane Bioreactor (eMB-MBR)

• Published in: Membranes (Basel) Vol. 8; no. 4; p. 116
• Main Authors: Millanar-Marfa, Jessa Marie J, Borea, Laura, de Luna, Mark Daniel G, Ballesteros, Jr, Florencio C, Belgiorno, Vincenzo, Naddeo, Vincenzo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 22-11-2018; MDPI
• Subjects: Ammonium; Biodegradation; Biofilms; Bioreactors; Carbohydrates; Chemical oxygen demand; Contaminants; Control systems; Effluents; Electric fields; electrochemical processes; Electrochemistry; Fouling; fouling precursors; Liquor; MBBR; Membrane processes; Membranes; moving bed biofilm reactor; Moving beds; Nitrates; Nitrogen; Orthophosphate; Pollutant removal; Power supply; Reactors; voltage gradient; Wastewater treatment; Water treatment; St Louis Missouri; United States > US; Italy; voltage gradient; MBBR; electrochemical processes; fouling precursors; moving bed biofilm reactor
• ISSN: 2077-0375; 2077-0375
• DOI: 10.3390/membranes8040116

High operational cost due to membrane fouling propensity remains a major drawback for the widespread application of membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology. As a result, studies on membrane fouling mitigation through the application of integrated processes have been widely explored. In this work, the combined application of electrochemical processes and moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) technology within an MBR at laboratory scale was performed by applying an intermittent voltage of 3 V/cm to a reactor filled with 30% carriers. The treatment efficiency of the electro moving bed membrane bioreactor (eMB-MBR) technology in terms of ammonium nitrogen (NH₄-N) and orthophosphate (PO₄-P) removal significantly improved from 49.8% and 76.7% in the moving bed membrane bioreactor (MB-MBR) control system to 55% and 98.7% in the eMB-MBR, respectively. Additionally, concentrations of known fouling precursors and membrane fouling rate were noticeably lower in the eMB-MBR system as compared to the control system. Hence, this study successfully demonstrated an innovative and effective technology (i.e., eMB-MBR) to improve MBR performance in terms of both conventional contaminant removal and fouling mitigation.