An anaerobic baffled reactor/membrane bioreactor (ABR/MBR) for on-site sanitation in low income areas

The paper presents the applicability of a membrane coupled anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) for low-cost, waterborne sanitation to those communities with limited access to basic sanitation and are inappropriate for on-site, dry sanitation systems. This represents a challenge as anaerobic MBRs must be operated without aeration. Consequently fluxes in anaerobic systems will be considerably lower than in aerobic systems, and fouling characteristics and hence operating requirements will be different to aerobic MBR. To evaluate the interaction between membranes and the conditions, a standardized test cell technique was used.

This study used a test cell technique to characterise the intrinsic membrane fouling of different biological fluids over time. The advantage of this technique is that it allows the characteristics of a particular fluid to be evaluated in a short period. The disadvantage of the technique is that only a limited number of tests can be performed on each membrane. Using this technique, it was shown that the potential for membrane fouling in an ABR is similar to that of an aerobic MBR. In compari- Table 3 MFI values for the different biological supernatants at various constant TMP Membrane Biological supernatant MFI (s/m2) Membrane 1 Compartment 2 – test 1 Compartment 2 – test 2 Compartment 3 – test 1 Compartment 3 – test 2 Compartment 4 – test 1 Compartment 4 – test 2 Activated sludge test 1 Activated sludge test 2 5×1011 8×1011 1×1012 9×1011 5×1011 5×1011 1×1012 1×1012 Membrane 2 AD sludge test 1 AD sludge test 2 AD sludge test 3 1×1012 1×1012 2×1012 Membrane 3a ABR effluent test 1 ABR effluent test 2 ABR effluent test 3 3×1011 3×1011 1×1012 a Filtration experiments conducted on effluent from laboratory ABR treating domestic wastewater. Three filtration tests were carried out on one Amicon PM membrane. Filtration curves and physico-chemical data for this set of experiments data is not shown.