Anaerobic baffled reactor coupled with membrane bioreactor treating tannery wastewater
Cong‐Sac Tran, Thi‐Kim‐Quyen Vo, Bao‐Trong Dang, Phuong-Thao Nguyen, Kim-Qui Nguyen, Quang-Huy Hoang, Linh-Thy Le, Thanh-Tin Nguyen, Xuan‐Thanh Bui
Abstract
Tannery wastewater contains high levels of the organic, inorganic, nitrogenous compound, suspended solids, dissolved solids, and other contaminants (Sulfide, chromium). Anaerobic Baffled Reactor-Membrane Bioreactor (ABR-MBR) system has been introduced as a promising technology for domestic wastewater treatment thanks to its sufficient organic treatment and low energy requirement. This work aimed to evaluate the performance and fouling behavior of the ABR-MBR system for tannery wastewater treatment during 60 d of operation. The ABR system was operated at an organic loading rate (OLR) of 3 kgCOD/m3. d while a low flux of 0.75 LMH was retained in the MBR. The results showed that the total COD removal was 89 ± 1% while the NH4+- N removal ranged from 28 to 33%. The fouling rate of MBR was from 5.14 to 6.18 kPa/d. The fouling degree became severe and this fact could be due to some matters: i) wastewater containing high salinity concentration (around 14,600 mg/L), ii) operation at high MLSS in MBR (over 10,000 mg/L), iii) and a short period of aeration time (1–3 min run: 7–9 min relaxation). Overall findings highlighted that the proposed ABR-MBR process could favor minimizing organic matter significantly.