Abstract
The removal of phosphorus, especially phosphate-form phosphorus, is necessary in wastewater treatment. Biofouling induced by the quorum sensing mechanism is also a major problem in membrane bioreactor (MBR), which reduces membrane flux. This study introduces lanthanum-doped quorum quenching (QQ) beads into MBR, confirming their inhibitory effect on biofouling due to Rhodococcus sp. BH4 and their capacity for phosphorus removal through lanthanum adsorption. A batch test was conducted to access the phosphate adsorption of lanthanum-QQ (La-QQ) beads and lab-scale MBR to verify the effect of inhibition. The study aimed to identify distinctions among the MBR, QQ MBR, and La-QQ MBR. In the batch test, the phosphate removal rate increased as the volume of beads increased, while the unit volume removal rate of phosphate decreased. In the lab-scale MBR, the phosphate removal rates were below 20% in the control MBR and QQ MBR, whereas the La-QQ MBR achieved a phosphate removal rate of 74%. There was not much difference between the ammonia and total organic carbon (TOC) removal rates. Regarding the change in transmembrane pressure(TMP), 3.7 days were taken for the control MBR to reach critical pressure. In contrast, the QQ-MBR took 9.8 days, and the La-QQ MBR took 6.1 days, which confirms the delay in biofouling. It is expected that La-QQ can be used within MBR to design a more stable MBR process that regulates biofouling and enhances phosphate removal.
Key Words
adsorption; biofouling; lanthanum beads; MBR; phosphate removal; quorum quenching
Address
Hyeonwoo Choi, Youjung Jang, Jaeyoung Choi, Hyeonsoo Choi and
Heekyong Oh: Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Seoul, 163 Seoulsiripdaero, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 02504, Republic of Korea
Shinho Chung: Department of Environmental Science, Forman Christian College (A Chartered University), Ferozepur Road, Lahore, Punjab, 54600, Pakistan
Abstract
This study evaluated the performance of a membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) for nitrogen removal from a high-strength ammonia nitrogen-containing wastewater. The experimental setup consisted of four compartments that are sequentially anaerobic and aerobic to achieve complete nitrogen removal. The last compartment of the reactor setup contained a membrane bioreactor (MBR) to reduce sludge production in the system and to obtain a better-quality effluent. Continuous experiment over a period of 47 days showed that MABR exhibited excellent NH4+-N removal efficiency (99.5%) compared to the control setup without MABR (56.5%). The final effluent NH4+-N concentration obtained in the MABR was 2.99
Address
Arindam Sinharoy, Ji-Hong Min and Chong-Min Chung: Department of Environmental Science & Biotechnology, Jeonju University, Jeonju 55069, Republic of Korea
