A novel biofilm-membrane reactor for advanced drinking water treatment - pilot scale study

Abstract

The authors have proposed a novel biofilm-membrane reactor (BMR) in which nitrifying biofilm is fixed on the surface of the rotating membrane disk. With this reactor, both strict solid-liquid separation and oxidation of ammonia nitrogen can be simultaneously performed. Based on the knowledge obtained in the previous experiments with the bench-scale equipment, a pilot scale study was conducted using river water at a water purification plant. The results obtained in the pilot study can be summarized as follows: (1) A pilot scale BMR worked successfully even with the water from an actual drinking water source. By implementation of pre-treatment (coagulation and sedimentation), the filter run could be continued for more than 8 months without any chemical washing. (2) The sponge cleaning developed in this study was found to be very effective. This indicates that the accumulated cake resistance is dominant in the practical situation. (3) Sufficient nitrification was observed when water temperature was high. (4) In addition to the nitrification, biological oxidation of AOC and manganese can be expected with the BMR. In this study, both AOC and manganese concentration in the permeate decreased to a level less than 10 μg/L.

Effect of pre-coagulation on mitigating irreversible fouling during ultrafiltration of a surface water

“…In this study, the pilot-scale rotating membrane disk module (Hitachi Plant and Construction, Tokyo, Japan) equipped with a polysulfone UF membrane (molecular weight cut-off (MWCO): 750,000) was used. Details and characteristics of the experimental site and the membrane module used in this study are described elsewhere (Kimura et al, 2004(Kimura et al, , 2001Okuma et al, 1994). Pre-coagulation/sedimentation was carried out by dosing poly aluminium chloride (PACI).…”

Microbial Growth in Drinking-Water Supplies: Problems, Causes, Control and Research Needs

“…11. As previously reported, chemical oxidation is necessary to oxidize soluble manganese when the raw water temperature become less than 10°C (Kimura et al 2001). Figure 3.12 shows the change of the permeate flux, trans-membrane pressure (TMP) and raw water temperature during the experiment with the symmetrical membrane.…”

“…13 shows the change of the membrane flux, TMP and raw water temperature with increasing operation time when the fourth type of composite PTFE membrane was used. The permeate flux was four times higher (1.2 m/day) than the flux in the symmetrical membrane (0.3 m/day) (Figures 3.12 and 3.13 Kimura et al (2001) developed a novel biofilm-membrane reactor (BMR) in which a biofilm, dominated by nitrifying microorganisms, was fixed on the surface of a rotating ultrafiltration (UF) membrane. With this reactor (Figure 3.14), strict solid-liquid separation, oxidation of ammonia nitrogen and AOC removal can be performed simultaneously.…”