Effect of Membrane Pore Size on Membrane Fouling of Corundum Ceramic Membrane in MBR

Rui Huang, Hui Pan, Xing Zheng, Chao Fan, Wenyan Si, Dongguan Bao, Shanshan Gao and Jiayu Tian ()
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Rui Huang: School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China
Hui Pan: School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China
Xing Zheng: State Key Laboratory of Eco-Hydraulics in Northwest Arid Region, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an 710048, China
Chao Fan: School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China
Wenyan Si: School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China
Dongguan Bao: Shanghai Hanyuan Engineering & Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai 201400, China
Shanshan Gao: School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China
Jiayu Tian: School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 5, 1-14

Abstract: Ceramic membrane has emerged as a promising material to address the membrane fouling issue in membrane bioreactors (MBR). In order to optimize the structural property of ceramic membrane, four corundum ceramic membranes with the mean pore size of 0.50, 0.63, 0.80, and 1.02 μm were prepared, which were designated as C5, C7, C13, and C20, respectively. Long-term MBR experiments showed that the C7 membrane with medium pore size experienced the lowest trans-membrane pressure development rate. Both the decrease and increase of membrane pore size would lead to more severe membrane fouling in the MBR. It was also interesting that with the increase of membrane pore size, the relative proportion of cake layer resistance in total fouling resistance was gradually increased. The content of dissolved organic foulants (i.e., protein, polysaccharide and DOC) on the surface of C7 was quantified as the lowest among the different ceramic membranes. Microbial community analysis also revealed the C7 had a lower relative abundance of membrane fouling associated bacteria in its cake layer. The results clearly demonstrated that ceramic membrane fouling in MBR could be effectively alleviated through optimizing the membrane pore size, which was a key structural factor for preparation of ceramic membrane.

Keywords: ceramic membrane; membrane fouling; membrane pore size; membrane preparation; membrane bioreactor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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