Membrane Bioreactors Used for Treatment of Food Industry Effluents

¹ TUCEB, Dept. of Water Engineering, Bucharest, Sector 2, 124 Lacul Tei Bvd., www.utcb.ro, Romania
² TUCEB, Dept. of Water Engineering, Bucharest, Sector 2, 124 Lacul Tei Bvd., www.utcb.ro, Romania

^* Corresponding author: anmar.engi@hotmail.com

Abstract

Effluents from the food industry determine pollution problems due to high COD and BOD concentrations. Compared to other industrial divisions, food industry requires large amounts of water. In this study, MBR was based on submerged hollow fibers membranes functioning by low vacuum. Two phases of bioreactor treatment were carried out with different HRTs (2-8) and (2-24) hours. Sixteen water samples collected from the influent and the effluent of the bioreactor during the two phases. NaOCl compound was added during the backwashing process for all tests, and the same compound was added with mixed liquid for the second test at period 24 hour of aeration. The samples were tested for twelve water quality tests: temperature, Dissolved Oxygen, pH, Turbidity, Total Suspended Solids, Mixed Liquor Suspended Solids, Chemical Oxygen Demand, Biochemical Oxygen Demand, Nitrate Nitrogen, Ammonium Nitrogen, Total Phosphate, and Ortho Phosphate. The results indicated that the bioreactor system can be used efficiently to treat industrial wastewater from the food industry. The efficiency of the technology was evaluated with sodium hypochlorite addition to removing the adherent bacteria on the surface area of hollow fibers. The results showed that the bioreactor under the conditions of the second phase was excellent in removing Turbidity, TSS, COD, and BOD₅ with a removal efficiency 99.96%, 89.52%, 93.56%, and 99.36% respectively, when added 82 ml of NaOCl in the bioreactor tank, and was a good removing of TP, and Ortho-P with removal efficiency 60.76% and 48.95% respectively. Otherwise, a negative effect of NaOCl on both of NO₃-N and NH₄-N was obtained in term of removal where the minimum removal efficiency was observed when adding 82 ml of NaOCl under the conditions of the second phase.