The high cost of Membrane Bio Reactors (MBRs) is basically due to high energy consumption and membrane cleaning or replacement. In particular, membrane fouling is responsible for increasing maintenance as well as operation costs although MBRs reduce the volumes of the reactors, decreasing the space needed for the treatment plant and so the initial investment costs. The addition of Powdered Activated Carbon (PAC) could reduce fouling, improving the useful life of the membranes. However, operational condition are not cost effective, since the quantities of PAC required are very high. In this study, experiments for studying the process of a MBR pilot plant with low PAC concentrations (0, 2, 5, 10 and 20 mg/L, respectively) at two different temperatures (summer and winter conditions) are presented, in order to evaluate the reliability of the process. The experimental analysis allow considering that the effective dosage of PAC is about 2 and 5 mg/L since it reduced the permeate flux loss (from 16 up to 27%, respectively). However, higher PAC concentration is useless since it increased the cost of the process.
The effect of powdered activated carbon for reducing fouling in membrane bioreactors
CONTI, FABIO;TORRETTA, VINCENZO
2017-01-01
Abstract
The high cost of Membrane Bio Reactors (MBRs) is basically due to high energy consumption and membrane cleaning or replacement. In particular, membrane fouling is responsible for increasing maintenance as well as operation costs although MBRs reduce the volumes of the reactors, decreasing the space needed for the treatment plant and so the initial investment costs. The addition of Powdered Activated Carbon (PAC) could reduce fouling, improving the useful life of the membranes. However, operational condition are not cost effective, since the quantities of PAC required are very high. In this study, experiments for studying the process of a MBR pilot plant with low PAC concentrations (0, 2, 5, 10 and 20 mg/L, respectively) at two different temperatures (summer and winter conditions) are presented, in order to evaluate the reliability of the process. The experimental analysis allow considering that the effective dosage of PAC is about 2 and 5 mg/L since it reduced the permeate flux loss (from 16 up to 27%, respectively). However, higher PAC concentration is useless since it increased the cost of the process.
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
