Distribution of extracellular polymeric substances in pilot-scale membrane bioreactor

Abstract

The spatial distribution of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in a pilot-scale membrane bioreactor (MBR) was studied. The sampling points on top of and inside the membrane module were measured and analyzed by the experimental variant function. The content of EPS was spatially interpolated by ordinary Kriging method, and illustrated with SURFER software. A case study was carried out in an MBR with membrane aperture of 0.4 μm and handling capacity of 120 m³/d in Jizhuangzi sewage treatment plant, Tianjin. From the visualization of EPS distribution, it is seen that on the horizontal plane, the content of EPS was the lowest at the center; and on the vertical plane, the content of EPS decreased with the increase of depth. The shearing force caused by aeration of perforated pipe and the influent mode are the main influencing factors for this distribution.

Keywords

MBR / EPS / Kriging method / distribution

References

[1] Kimura K., Nishisako R., Miyoshi T. Baffled membrane bioreactor (BMBR) for efficient nutrient removal from municipal wastewater[J]. Water Research, 2008, 42(3): 625-632.

[2] Djamila A.-H., Jacqueline T., Sven L., et al. Correlation of EPS content in activated sludge at different sludge retention times with membrane fouling phenomena[J]. Water Research, 2008, 42(6/7): 1475-1488.

[3] Nagaoka H., Akoh H. Decomposition of EPS on the membrane surface and its influence on the fouling mechanism in MBRs[J]. Desalination, 2008, 231(1–3): 150-155.

[4] Kim I. S., Jang N. The effect of calcium on the membrane biofouling in the membrane bioreactor(MBR)[J]. Water Research, 2006, 40(14): 2756-2764.

[5] Fukushi K., Kato S., Antsuki T., et al. Isolation of copper binding proteins from activated sludge culture[J]. Water Science and Technology, 2001, 44(2/3): 453-459.

[6] Zhu T., Xie Y., Han J., et al. Membrane fouling related to microbiological characteristics in membrane bioreactor[J]. Chemical Engineering, 2008, 36(11): 43-47.

[7] Comte S., Guibaud G., Baudu M. Effect of extraction method on EPS from activated sludge: An HPSEC investigation[J]. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 2007, 140(1/2): 129-137.

[8] Geng Z., Hall E. R. A comparative study of fouling-related properties of sludge from conventional and membrane enhanced biological phosphorus removal processes[J]. Water Research, 2007, 41(19): 4329-4338.

[9] Yan Huiwu. The Volume Visualization Technology and Its Application in the Study of Ground-Water Resource [D]. 2002, Wuhan: Wuhan University.

[10] Zhang Y., Niu Z., Zhang Hongwei. Estimation of organic substance concentration in coastal marine by geostatistics[J]. Journal of Tianjin University, 2007, 40(4): 484 489

[11] Fan F., Zhou H., Husain Hadi. Identification of wastewater sludge characteristics to predict critical flux for membrane bioreactor processes[J]. Water Research, 2006, 40(2): 205-212.