Influence of shear on nitrification rates in a membrane bioreactor.

Grundfos BioBooster (GBB) installed and operated a membrane bioreactor (MBR) test plant in 2012. During the period it became evident that the nitrification rate was lower than expected and a study was carried out to investigate the possible reasons for the observed low-nitrification rate. Tests were conducted at a pilot plant and the effect of shear from the BioBooster membrane system and the pressure reduction component on the nitrification rate was investigated. The possible effect of selection of microbial communities caused by the filtration unit was also investigated. The results revealed an unchanged nitrification rate when exposed to shear from the filtration unit and the pressure reduction component. When testing the effect of selection, the nitrification rate was also unchanged.

Removal of APIs and bacteria from hospital wastewater by MBR plus O(3), O(3) + H(2)O(2), PAC or ClO(2).

The objective of this study has been to develop technologies that can reduce the content of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and bacteria from hospital wastewater. The results from the laboratory- and pilot-scale testings showed that efficient removal of the vast majority of APIs could be achieved by a membrane bioreactor (MBR) followed by ozone, ozone + hydrogen peroxide or powdered activated carbon (PAC). Chlorine dioxide (ClO(2)) was significantly less effective. MBR + PAC (450 mg/l) was the most efficient technology, while the most cost-efficient technology was MBR + ozone (156 mg O(3)/l applied over 20 min). With MBR an efficient removal of Escherichia coli and enterococci was measured, and no antibiotic resistant bacteria were detected in the effluent. With MBR + ozone and MBR + PAC also the measured effluent concentrations of APIs (e.g. ciprofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole and sulfamethizole) were below available predicted no-effect concentrations (PNEC) for the marine environment without dilution. Iodinated contrast media were also reduced significantly (80-99% for iohexol, iopromide and ioversol and 40-99% for amidotrizoateacid). A full-scale MBR treatment plant with ozone at a hospital with 900 beds is estimated to require an investment cost of €1.6 mill. and an operating cost of €1/m(3) of treated water.

Analytical and numerical modelling of Newtonian and non-Newtonian liquid in a rotational cross-flow MBR.

Fouling is the main bottleneck of the widespread use of MBR systems. One way to decrease and/or control fouling is by process hydrodynamics. This can be achieved by the increase of liquid cross-flow velocity. In rotational cross-flow MBR systems, this is attained by the spinning of, for example, impellers. Validation of the CFD (computational fluid dynamics) model was made against laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) tangential velocity measurements (error less than 8%) using water as a fluid. The shear stress over the membrane surface was inferred from the CFD simulations for water. However, activated sludge (AS) is a non-Newtonian liquid, for which the CFD model was modified incorporating the non-Newtonian behaviour of AS. Shear stress and area-weighted average shear stress relationships were made giving error less that 8% compared with the CFD results. An empirical relationship for the area-weighted average shear stress was developed for water and AS as a function of the angular velocity and the total suspended solids concentration. These relationships can be linked to the energy consumption of this type of systems.