Nowadays there is an increasing worldwide concern about the development and application of different technologies for wastewater treatment. The membrane biological reactor (MBR) system combines the traditional activated sludge treatment process with a microfiltration (MF) or ultrafiltration (UF) membrane. It enhances the removal of COD, BOD, N, P, suspended solids as well as hydrocarbons in wastewaters. University of Calabria is involved in a research project "RES NOVAE, PON04a2_E”, where a MBR integrated system has been designed and tested for drainage wastewaters treatment. Such system was composed of a wastewater tank, an equalization/denitrification tank and a biological reactor that contains a submerged UF membrane module. The wastewater contains a high concentration of hydrocarbons and both organic and inorganic compounds; they are fed to the well mixed equalization/denitrification tank and, then, thanks to a peristaltic pump to the bioreactor. MBR was equipped with an air diffuser that provides the oxygen and the required turbulence on the membrane surface. The permeate was recovered by filtration through the UF membrane, with the driving force provided by a peristaltic pump located after the membrane module. All the systems were equipped with temperature, pH, level and, if necessary, oxygen probes, in order to have the complete remote control and regulation of the performances. That was obtained by means of a data acquisition system that provided an automatic control of the whole process. The ultrafiltration hollow – fiber or flat PVDF membrane module was submerged in the bioreactor, where the biomass (microorganism) used also the hydrocarbons as substrate. The hydrocarbon degradation depends on the environmental conditions, amount and type of microorganisms, nature and chemical structure of the chemical compound being degraded. In particular, the rate of degradation depends on pH, temperature, oxygen, microbial population, degree of acclimation, accessibility of nutrients, chemical structure of the compound, cellular transport properties and chemical portioning in growth medium. Some bacterial species – commonly known to degrade hydrocarbons in wastewater – such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pseudomonas fluorescens and Mycobacterium spp. have been used. Both the influent and the effluent samples were collected from the permeate stream and sent to a solid phase extraction (SPE) system, where hydrocarbons were selectively separated from treated water and then analyzed in a gas chromatography. The retention coefficient of the UF membrane coupled with the biological oxidation
Design of a Membrane Biological Reactor (MBR) integrated system for the Removal of Hydrocarbons from Wastewater.
Arcuri N;Chakraborty S;CALABRO', Vincenza
2015-01-01
Abstract
Nowadays there is an increasing worldwide concern about the development and application of different technologies for wastewater treatment. The membrane biological reactor (MBR) system combines the traditional activated sludge treatment process with a microfiltration (MF) or ultrafiltration (UF) membrane. It enhances the removal of COD, BOD, N, P, suspended solids as well as hydrocarbons in wastewaters. University of Calabria is involved in a research project "RES NOVAE, PON04a2_E”, where a MBR integrated system has been designed and tested for drainage wastewaters treatment. Such system was composed of a wastewater tank, an equalization/denitrification tank and a biological reactor that contains a submerged UF membrane module. The wastewater contains a high concentration of hydrocarbons and both organic and inorganic compounds; they are fed to the well mixed equalization/denitrification tank and, then, thanks to a peristaltic pump to the bioreactor. MBR was equipped with an air diffuser that provides the oxygen and the required turbulence on the membrane surface. The permeate was recovered by filtration through the UF membrane, with the driving force provided by a peristaltic pump located after the membrane module. All the systems were equipped with temperature, pH, level and, if necessary, oxygen probes, in order to have the complete remote control and regulation of the performances. That was obtained by means of a data acquisition system that provided an automatic control of the whole process. The ultrafiltration hollow – fiber or flat PVDF membrane module was submerged in the bioreactor, where the biomass (microorganism) used also the hydrocarbons as substrate. The hydrocarbon degradation depends on the environmental conditions, amount and type of microorganisms, nature and chemical structure of the chemical compound being degraded. In particular, the rate of degradation depends on pH, temperature, oxygen, microbial population, degree of acclimation, accessibility of nutrients, chemical structure of the compound, cellular transport properties and chemical portioning in growth medium. Some bacterial species – commonly known to degrade hydrocarbons in wastewater – such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pseudomonas fluorescens and Mycobacterium spp. have been used. Both the influent and the effluent samples were collected from the permeate stream and sent to a solid phase extraction (SPE) system, where hydrocarbons were selectively separated from treated water and then analyzed in a gas chromatography. The retention coefficient of the UF membrane coupled with the biological oxidationI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
