Effect of sludge retention time on sludge characteristics and membrane fouling of membrane bioreactor

Three identical membrane bioreactors （MBRs） were operated over 2 years at different sludge retention time （SRT） of 10 d, 40 d and no sludge withdrawal （NS）, to elucidate and quantify the effect of SRT on the sludge characteristics and membrane fouling. The hydraulic retention times of these MBRs were controlled at 12 h. With increasing SRT, the sludge concentrations in the MBRs increased, whereas the ratio of volatile suspended solid to the total solid decreased, and the size of sludge granule diminished in the meantime. A higher sludge concentration at long SRT could maintain a better organic removal efficiency, and a longer SRT was propitious to the growth of nitrifiers. The performance of these MBRs for the removal of COD and NH4^＋-N did not change much with different SRTs. However, the bioactivity decreased as SRT increase. The measurement of specific oxygen uptake rates （SOUR） and fluorescence in situ hybridization （FISH） with rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes testified that SOUR and the proportion of the bacteria-specific probe EUB338 in all DAPI-stainable bacteria decreased with increasing SRT. The concentrations of total organic carbon, protein, polysaccharides and soluble extracellular polymeric substance （EPS） in the mixed liquor supernatant also decreased with increasing SRT. The membrane fouling rate was higher at shorter SRT, and the highest fouling rate appeared at a SRT of 10 d. Both the sludge cake layer and gel layer had contribution to the fouling resistance, but the relative contribution of the gel layer decreased as SRT increase.

Effect of Sludge Retention Time on the Fate of Proteins and Polysaccharides in AAO Process

Effect of sludge retention time( SRT) on the removal of potential and polysaccharides in an anaerobic / anoxic / aerobic( AAO) process was investigated. The Lowry method and anthrone method were used to detect proteins and polysaccharides. Total removal efficiency of proteins at SRT of 10 to 25 d in the AAO system was higher than 90%. Polysaccharides removal efficiencies were above 80% when SRT was increased from 15 to 25 d,whereas only 81% of polysaccharides was removed at SRT of 10 d. The biodegradation part of proteins and polysaccharides increased from87. 40% to 93% and from 74. 22% to 86. 94% with increasing SRTs.The ratios of polysaccharides and proteins in extracellular polymer substances( EPSs) were around 1. 5-3 in different SRTs. As SRT increasing,polysaccharides and proteins discharged with residual sludge decreased gradually. The amount of EPSs decreased with increasing SRTs.

Effects of sludge retention time,carbon and initial biomass concentrations on selection process:From activated sludge to polyhydroxyalkanoate accumulating cultures

Four sequence batch reactors（SBRs） fed by fermented sugar cane wastewater were continuously operated under the aerobic dynamic feeding（ADF） mode with different configurations of sludge retention time（SRT）, carbon and initial biomass concentrations to enrich polyhydroxyalkanoate（PHA） accumulating mixed microbial cultures（MMCs） from municipal activated sludge.The stability of SBRs was investigated besides the enrichment performance. The microbial community structures of the enriched MMCs were analyzed using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism（T-RFLP）. The optimum operating conditions for the enrichment process were： SRT of 5 days, carbon concentration of 2.52 g COD/L and initial biomass concentration of3.65 g/L. The best enrichment performance in terms of both operating stability and PHA storage ability of enriched cultures（with the maximum PHA content and PHA storage yield（YPHA/S） of61.26% and 0.68 mg COD/mg COD, respectively） was achieved under this condition. Effects of the SRT, carbon concentration and initial biomass concentration on the PHA accumulating MMCs selection process were discussed respectively. A new model including the segmentation of the enrichment process and the effects of SRT on each phase was proposed.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE Dynamics of bacterial community at varying sludge retention time within membrane bioreactor treating synthetic hospital wastewater

The study was conducted to investigate the effect of sludge retention on bacterial community composition of membrane bioreactor(MBR)treating synthetic hospital wastewater.The removal of four pharmaceuticals,namely carbamazepine,estradiol,venlafaxine,and ibuprofen in MBR,was studied at varying sludge retention time(SRT)duration of 100,45,and 15 days and hydraulic retention time(HRT)of 18 h.The removal of ibuprofen and estradiol was constant at varying SRT;however,a negligible removal of carbamazepine and low removal of venlafaxine was observed(<20%).The study suggested that the SRT of 45 days in MBR could provide maximum treatment efficiency via decreasing membrane clogging.The effect of sludge age and pharmaceutical presence on the bacterial community was investigated via high-throughput sequencing.The study reveals that the variation in SRT affects the dynamics of the bacterial community significantly.For instance,the dominant bacterium Caldimonas of SRT 100 was disappeared at lower SRTs.Moreover,the profile of the dominant genus of the SRTs varied greatly from each other.

Removal of nitrogen and phosphorus in a combined A^2/O-BAF system with a short aerobic SRT

A bench-scale anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic process-biological aerated filter （A^2/O-BAF） combined system was carded out to treat wastewater with lower C/N and C/P ratios. The A^2/O process was operated in a short aerobic sludge retention time （SRT） for organic pollutants and phosphorus removal, and denitrification. The subsequent BAF process was mainly used for nitrification. The BAF effluent was partially returned to anoxic zone of the A^2/O process to provide electron acceptors for denitrification and anoxic P uptake. This unique system formed an environment for reproducing the denitdfying phosphate-accumulating organisms （DPAOs）. The ratio of DPAOs to phosphorus accumulating organisms （PAOs） could be maintained at 28% by optimizing the organic loads in the anaerobic zone and the nitrate loads into the anoxic zone in the A^2/O process. The aerobic phosphorus over-uptake and discharge of excess activated sludge was the main mechanism of phosphorus removal in the combined system. The aerobic SRT of the A^2/O process should meet the demands for the development of aerobic PAOs and the restraint on the nitrifiers growth, and the contact time in the aerobic zone of the A^2/O process should be longer than 30 min, which ensured efficient phosphorus removal in the combined system. The adequate BAF effluent return rates should be controlled with 1--4 mg/L nitrate nitrogen in the anoxic zone effluent of A^2/O process to achieve the optimal nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiencies.

Occurrence,distribution,and potential influencing factors of sewage sludge components derived from nine full-scale wastewater treatment plants of Beijing,China

Millions of tons of waste activated sludge（WAS） produced from biological wastewater treatment processes cause severe adverse environmental consequences. A better understanding of WAS composition is thus very critical for sustainable sludge management. In this work, the occurrence and distribution of several fundamental sludge constituents were explored in WAS samples from nine full-scale wastewater treatment plants（WWTPs） of Beijing, China. Among all the components investigated, active heterotrophic biomass was dominant in the samples（up to 9478 mg/L）, followed by endogenous residues（6736 mg/L）,extracellular polymeric substances（2088 mg/L）, and intracellular storage products（464 mg/L）among others. Moreover, significant differences（p 〈 0.05） were observed in composition profiles of sludge samples among the studied WWTPs. To identify the potential parameters affecting the variable fractions of sludge components, wastewater source as well as design and operational parameters of WWTPs were studied using statistical methods. The findings indicated that the component fraction of sewage sludge depends more on wastewater treatment alternatives than on wastewater characteristics among other parameters. A principal component analysis was conducted, which further indicated that there was a greater proportion of residual inert biomass in the sludge produced by the combined system of the conventional anaerobic/anoxic/oxic process and a membrane bioreactor. Additionally, a much longer solids retention time was also found to influence the sludge composition and induce an increase in both endogenous inert residues and extracellular polymeric substances in the sludge.

Performance of Submerged Membrane Bioreactor for Domestic Wastewater Treatment

In the present research, a submerged membrane bioreactor was tested to treat domestic wastewater. Three experimental runs were conducted all with a hydraulic retention time of 5h and sludge retention times (SRTs) of 5, 10, and 20 d. The pollutant removal performance of the membrane bioreactor, the membrane effluent quality, and a kinetic model for sludge growth in the bioreactor were investigated. The combined process was capable of removing over 90% of both COD (chemical oxygen demand) and NH 3 N on the average. The total removal for COD was almost independent of SRT, but that for NH 3 N improved with increasing SRT. Membrane effluent quality meets the water quality standard for reuse issued by the Ministry of Construction of China. Increasing SRT causes the concentrations of suspended solids (SS) and volatile suspended solids (VSS) in the bioreactor to increase. However, the ratio of VSS/SS did not change much. Kinetic analysis showed that the sludge yield coefficient (kg VSS·kg COD -1 ) and the endogenous coefficient of microorganisms were 0.25 and 0.04d -1 , which are similar to those of the conventional activated sludge process.