• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.565-572
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• 2011

The effects of chemical pretreatments on the excess sludge production in the membrane-coupled bioreactor were investigated. In addition, their effects on membrane fouling were also evaluated. Two membrane bioreactors were operated. In one reactor, a part of the mixed liquor was t reated with NaOH and ozone gas consecutively and was returned to the reactor. T he f lowrate of the chemical pretreatment stream was 1.5% of the influent flowrate. During the 200days of operation, the MLSS level in the bioreactor with mixed liquor pretreatment was maintained relatively constant at the range of 8,000 ~ 10,000$mg/{\ell}$ while it increased steadily up to 26,000 $mg/{\ell}$ in the absence of the pretreatment. Each reactor was equipped with two laboratory membrane modules where the flux for each module was 20, and 30 ${\ell}/m^2{\cdot}h$, respectively. With pretreatment, almost constant transmembrane pressure(TMP) was observed throughout the operation at the flux of 20 ${\ell}/m^2{\cdot}h$. Without pretreatment the membrane module at the same flux could also be operated at relatively stable condition. However, as the MLSS increases up to 25,000 $mg/{\ell}$, a fast TMP increase was observed. In conclusion, a complete control of excess sludge production in the membrane-coupled bioreactor was possible without significant deterioration of the treated water quality. In addition, it was shown that stable operation in terms of TMP is possible with sludge pretreatment and recirculation.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.395-409
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• 2017

Membrane bioreactor (MBR) is a compact and efficient wastewater treatment and reclamation technology; but, it is limited by membrane fouling. The control of membrane fouling significantly increases operational and maintenance costs. Bacteria and their byproducts - extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) - are major contributors to membrane fouling in MBRs. A recent attempt at fouling mitigation is the development of aerobic granular sludge membrane bioreactor (AGMBR) through the integration of a novel biotechnology - aerobic granulation - and MBR. This paper provides an overview on the development of AGMBR to mitigate membrane fouling caused by bacteria and EPS. In AGMBR, EPS are used up in granule formation; and, the rigid structure of granules provides a surface for bacteria to attach to rather than the membrane surface. Preliminary research on AGMBR using synthetic wastewater show remarkable membrane fouling reduction compared to conventional MBR, thus improved membrane filtration. Enhanced performance in AGMBR using actual municipal wastewater at pilot-scale has also been reported. Therefore, further research is needed to determine AGMBR optimal operational conditions to enhance granule stability in long-term operations and in full-scale applications.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.331-338
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• 2019

This study aimed to investigate the membrane fouling and sludge characteristics in a pilot-scale submerged membrane bioreactor (MBR) operated under low temperature ($7^{\circ}C$). To elucidate the mechanisms of membrane fouling at low temperature, we studied the correlation between MBR performances and physicochemical properties of sludge including extracellular polymeric substance (EPS), relative hydrophobicity (RH) and floc size during long-term operation. The MBR was shown able to remove chemical oxygen demand (COD) stably and efficiently (>90 %) in the case of overgrowth of filamentous bacteria (bulking sludge) at low temperature. On the other hand, the occurrence of filamentous bulking greatly accelerated membrane fouling, as indicated by membrane filtration period of 14 days for filamentous bulking at $7^{\circ}C$, in comparison with that of 27 days for non-bulking sludge at $24^{\circ}C$ The overgrowth of filamentous bacteria resulting from low-temperature condition led to an increased release of EPS, higher RH, smaller floc size and lower fractal dimension of sludge. These factors accelerated the formation of compact cake layer on membrane surface in association with performance diminution in terms of increase in transmembrane pressure (TMP) of the membrane and thus the decrease in membrane permeability.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.679-685
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• 2002

The objective of this study was investigated for the microbial community structure and treatment performance of domestic wastewater in lab-scale submerged membrane bioreactor operated with anoxic-oxic cycles. Respiratory quinone profiles were applied as tools for identifying different bacterial populations. The cycle time program of bioreactor was control under anoxic/oxic of 60/90 minutes with an hydraulic retention time of 8.4 hrs. The average $COD_{Cr}$ removal efficiency of domestic wastewater was as high as 93%. The results showed complete nitrification of $NH_4^+$-N generated during oxic period and up to 50% of the total nitrogen could be denitrified. The dominant quinone types of suspended microorganisms in bioreactor were ubiquinone (UQ)-8, -10, followed by menaquinone (MK)-6, and MK-7 for anoxic period, but those for oxic period were UQ-8, MK-6, followed by UQ-10 and MK-7. The microbial diversities of bioreactor at anoxic and oxic periods, calculated based on the composition of all quinones were 10.4 and 12.2-11.8, respectively. The experimental results showed that the microbial community structure in the submerged membrane bioreactor treating domestic wastewater was slightly affected by intermittent aeration.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.911-916
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• 1994

Hollow fiber membrane has been successfully developed as an artificial kidney device in the 1970's. In the early 1970's animal cells were introduced into a hollow fiber membrane cartridge and well propagated in the cartridge. Since then, hollow fiber membrane was utilized as a bioreactor in order to immobilize enzymes as well as to culture microbial cells and plant cells. In this review, the present status and the prospect of hollow fiber membrane bioreactor are investigated in view of cell density and product productivity.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.370-373
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• 2000

In this work, an extractive membrane bioreactor containing coulture broth of Burkholderia cepacia G4 PR1 constitutively expressing the TCE-degrading enzyme, tolune-ortho-monooxygenase(TOM), was used for the degradation of TCE. The membrane bioreactor operates by seperating the TCE-containing waste gas from the aerated biomedium, by which the air-stripping of TCE without degradation was overcome that could occur in conventional aerobic biological treatments of TCE-contaminated waste gases. This was achieved by a silicone rubber membrane which was coiled around a perspex draft tube. TCE from the gas phase diffuses across the silicone rubber membrane into microbial culture broth that was continuously fed from a separate aerobic CSTR. Therefore, TCE degradation occured without the TCE being directly exposed to the aerating gas stream. Of the TCE supplied to the membrane bioreactor, 72.6% was biodegraded during the operation of this system. To construct a mathematical model for this system, parameters describing microbial growth kinetics on TCE were determined using a CSTR bioreactor. Else parameters used for numerical simulation were determined from either indepedent experiments or values reported in the literature. The model was compared with the experimental data, and there was a good agreement between the predicted and the measured TCE concentrations in the system. To achieve a higher treatment efficiency, various operating conditions were simulated as well.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.120-124
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• 2009

This study was performed to investigate the application of submerged membrane bioreactor (MBR) system for biological nutrient removal of municipal wastewater. MBR bioreactor consists of four reactors such as anaerobic, stabilization, anoxic and submerged membrane aerobic reactors with two internal recycles. The hydraulic retention time (HRT), sludge retention time (SRT) and flux were 6.2 hr, 34.1 days and $19.6L/m^2/hr$ (LMH), respectively. As a result of operation, the removal efficiency of $COD_{Cr}$, SS, TN and TP were 94.3%, 99.9%, 69.4%, and 74.6%, respectively. There was no significant effect of microbial activity after the maintenance cleaning using 200 mg/L of NaOCl. Membrane filtration for the treatment of municipal wastewater was performed for longer than 9 months without chemical recovery cleaning.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.196-204
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• 2018

The anaerobic fluidized bed bioreactor (AFBR) treating synthetic wastewater to simulate domestic sewage was operated under GAC fluidization to provide high surface area for biofilm formation. Although the AFBR achieves excellent COD removal efficiency due to biological activities, concerns are still made with nutrient such as nitrogen remaining in the effluent produced by AFBR. In this study, forward osmosis membrane was applied to treat the effluent produced by AFBR to investigate removal efficiency of total nitrogen (TN) with respect to the draw solution (DS) such as NaCl and glucose. Permeability of FO membrane increased with increasing DS concentration. About 55% of TN removal efficiency was observed with the FO membrane using 1 M of NaCl of draw solution, but almost complete TN removal efficiency was achieved with 1 M of glucose of draw solution. During 24 h of filtration, there was no permeate flux decline with the FO membrane regardless of draw solution applied.

• Korean Membrane Journal
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.32-38
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• 2001

Using the hollow fiber membrane module in a lab-scale membrane bioreactor, the anoxic- oxic (AO) process for nitrogen removal was operated for about one year. For the influent wastewater containing 1,200-1,400 mg $1^{-1}$ of CODcr and 200-310 mg $1^{-1}$ of nitrogen, this process achieved a high quality effluent of less than 30 mgCOD $liter^{-1}$ and 50 mgN $liter^{-1}$. The removal rate of organics was above 98% at a loading rate larger than 2.5 kgCOD $m^{-3}$$d^{-1}$. When the internal recycle from the oxic to the anoxic reactor changed room 2n to 600% rout the influent flow rate, the nitrogen removal rate increased from about 70 to 90% at a loading rate of 0.4 kgT-N m-s d-1. The initial increase of transmembrane pressure (TMP) was observed after a 4-month operation while maintaining the flux and MLSS concentration at 7-9 1 $m^2$ $h^{-1}$ and 6,000-14,000 mg $1^{-1}$, respectively. The TMP could be maintained below 15 cmHg for an 8-month operation. The chemical cleaning with an acid followed by an immersion in an alkali solution gave better cleaning result with the membrane operated for 10 month rather than that only by an alkali immersion.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.196-202
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• 2016

Membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology has previously been used by water industry to treat high salinity wastewater. In this study, an anoxic-oxic biofilm-membrane bioreactor (AOB-MBR) system has been developed to treat mustard tuber wastewater of 10% salinity (calculated as NaCl). To figure out the effects of operating conditions of the AOB-MBR on membrane fouling rate ($K_V$), response surface methodology was used to evaluate the interaction effect of the three key operational parameters, namely time interval for pump (t), aeration intensity ($U_{Gr}$) and transmembrane pressure (TMP). The optimal condition for lowest membrane fouling rate ($K_V$) was obtained: time interval was 4.0 min, aeration intensity was $14.6 m^3/(m^2{\cdot}h)$ and transmembrane pressure was 19.0 kPa. And under this condition, the treatment efficiency with different influent loads, i.e. 1.0, 1.9 and $3.3kgCODm^{-3}d^{-1}$ was researched. When the reactor influent load was less than $1.9kgCODm^{-3}d^{-1}$, the effluent could meet the third discharge standard of "Integrated Wastewater Discharge Standard". This study suggests that the model fitted by response surface methodology can predict accurately membrane fouling rate within the specified design space. And it is feasible to apply the AOB-MBR in the pickled mustard tuber factory, achieving satisfying effluent quality.