Ultrasonic treatment of an aerobic activated sludge in a batch reactor

Low-frequency and high-intensity ultrasonic treatment of sewage plant sludge disrupts the flocs and lyses the bacterial cells. This results in a substantial reduction in the volume of the flocs and a release of both inter and intracellular materials. The evolution of the particles size (flocs and isolated microorganisms) is evaluated by a Malvern Mastersizer granulometer and the release of material is quantified by measuring the chemical oxygen demand and the proteins solubilized in the solution. In the first part, the disruption of the particles was undertaken with low concentrated sludge from an aeration tank in order to comprehend better the mechanisms and to modelize them. In the second part, the influence of the initial concentration is studied by working with higher concentrated sludge from a settler. Ultrasonic treatment also causes a change in the settleability and filterability of the sludge which the effects are evaluated in the last part.     

贫营养条件下膜生物反应器污泥减量化研究

主要针对贫营养条件下膜生物反应器（membrane bioreactor,MBR）污泥减量化进行研究,在封闭条件下对MBR污泥进行为期16 d的监测。实验期间主要针对污泥浓度及污泥活性进行了定期取样分析,采用修正的污染指数（modified fouling index,MFI）对污泥混合液可滤性进行评价。实验结果表明,长时间的内源呼吸过程将加速降低污泥活性及强化污泥混合液可滤性的恶化;短时间内源呼吸过程将改善污泥混合液可滤性,有利于MBR工艺实现污泥减量化。     

Effect of Hydrodynamics During Crystallization on Mechanical Dewatering of Salicylic Acid

Mechanical cake dewatering is always desired to reduce the load on thermal dewatering (drying). Any change in the upstream process such as crystallization can have a significant influence on the filtration as well as cake dewatering characteristics. The present study deals with the effect of hydrodynamics (mixing intensity) during salicylic acid crystallization on the air dewatering characteristics in the subsequent pressure filtration. The mixing conditions during crystallization were varied by using three different types of agitators (anchor impeller [AI], curved blade turbine [CBT], and bar turbine [BT]) and by varying the speed of agitation. The effect of operating pressure and dewatering time on the final moisture content of the cake was also studied.

The crystal properties (crystal size and size distribution) were found to vary with the mixing intensity, which further influenced the cake dewatering kinetics as well as the residual moisture content. An AI, which is a laminar flow impeller, produced crystals with a wide size distribution and higher mean particle size, which resulted in cake with high porosity and hence higher moisture content. The high porosity (as well as high cake permeability) caused early air breakthrough, which resulted in ineffective dewatering of cake. Therefore, in this case the residual moisture in cake was found to be higher (27%) even at higher dewatering pressure (1.5 bar gauge) and longer dewatering time (90 s). A BT creates high turbulence during mixing and produced crystals with a relatively narrow size distribution and lower mean particle size, which provided low-porosity cakes. Such cakes could be efficiently dewatered and the final cake moisture content was found to decrease to about 15%, a significant improvement in the filterability of the cake. The dewatering data were modeled according to the correlation between irreducible cake saturation and capillary number for predicting the cake dewatering characteristics (residual moisture as well as dewatering kinetics) and the results were compared with the experimental data.     

Why low powdered activated carbon addition reduces membrane fouling in MBRs

Previous research had demonstrated that powdered activated carbon (PAC), when applied at very low dosages and long SRTs, reduces membrane fouling in membrane bioreactor (MBRs). In this contribution several mechanisms to explain this beneficial effect of PAC were investigated, including enhanced scouring of the membrane surface by PAC particles, adsorption of membrane foulants by PAC and subsequent biodegradation and a positive effect of PAC on the strength of the sludge flocs. It was concluded that the latter mechanism best explains why low dosages of PAC significantly reduce membrane fouling. Cheaper alternatives for PAC may have a similar effect.     

Physical characteristics of the sludge in a complete retention membrane bioreactor

Sludge physical characteristics play an important role in the operation of membrane bioreactors (MBR) due to their influence on filtration and their effects on handling of excess sludge. These systems are designed to maintain high solid concentrations, thus limiting sludge production and the related operational costs of the process. In this study, the sludge from a bench scale MBR operated for about 1 year with complete solid retention was investigated to assess its physical and rheological properties. Concentrations of mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) up to 24 gTSSL(-1) affected the diluted sludge volume index (DSVI), the capillary suction time (CST), the specific resistance to filtration (SRF) and the compressibility (s). The MBR sludge displayed similar dewatering properties of conventional waste activated sludge, suggesting that the upgrade of wastewater treatment plants with the MBR technology would not affect the behaviour of the dewatering equipment. The apparent viscosity was expressed as a function of the MLSS and the experimental data were interpreted by comparing different models. Ostwald model was chosen, and two equations for viscosity were proposed. The thixotropy of MBR sludge was also evaluated by measuring the reduced hysteresis area (rHa) and relating this parameter to the characteristics of the sludge. The evaluation of energy consumption for mixing evidenced that, under the tested conditions, the increase of solid concentration from 3 to 30 gTSSL(-1) resulted in a limited increase of energy requirements (25-30%).     

Influence of filtration conditions on membrane fouling and scouring aeration effectiveness in submerged membrane bioreactors to treat municipal wastewater

Membrane fouling and scouring aeration effectiveness were studied using three large pilot-scale submerged membrane bioreactors (MBRs) operated at a series of permeate fluxes, scouring aeration intensities and cyclic aeration frequencies to treat municipal wastewater. The results showed that when operated at the sustainable conditions, the MBRs had a stable reversible fouling resistance. At unsustainable conditions, the reversible fouling resistance increased exponentially as filtration progressed. For each of above two cases, the fouling ratios newly defined by Eqs. (7) and (8) were calculated from the transmembrane pressure increases to compare the relative reversible fouling rates. With the range of sustainable filtration conditions, the fouling ratios at the same reference scouring aeration intensity were found to be proportional to permeate flux. Similarly, the fouling ratios calculated with the same reference permeate flux decreased exponentially with increasing scouring aeration intensity. Moreover, the effects of scouring aeration intensity and permeate flux on the fouling ratios were found to be independent of one another. As a result, an empirical relationship was derived to relate the stable reversible fouling resistance to sustainable permeate fluxes and scouring aeration intensities. Its application was demonstrated by constructing transmembrane pressure contours overlaid with scouring aeration effectiveness contours to aid in the selection of optimal MBR filtration conditions.     

Filterability of activated sludge in membrane bioreactors

The filterability of activated sludge is an important factor for the economical operation of membrane bioreactors (MBR). In the literature mainly investigations on sludge dewaterability in respect to further disposal are published. In this study, a procedure for determining filterability in a crossflow test cell is introduced. Its features are: no increase in sludge concentration during batch trials, crossflow conditions, and little impact on the sludge structure. The activated sludge filterability is given as the ratio of permeate flux after 40 min of operation to clear water flux. Sludge samples of eight different MBR and one conventional wastewater treatment plant (wwtp) have been examined and compared. Contrary to the literature, no impact of suspended solids (SS) concentration, sludge viscosity, or extractable extracellular polymer substances (EPS) concentration on the filterability was found. Instead, the composition of the liquid phase was found to effect most the filterability of activated sludge, a major influence being the concentration of suspended EPS: the higher the suspended EPS concentration, the lower the filtration index. Suspended EPS concentration increases with high mechanical stress in the MBR and high F/M ratios, if the treated wastewater contains considerable amounts of proteins or polysaccharides.     

DETERMINATION OF THE FILTERABILITY OF BEER

A method for the determination of the filterability of beer has been evaluated by members of the European Brewery Convention Analysis Committee. The method is based on the filtration of a beer sample, with a standard amount of diatomaceous earth (DE), under standardised conditions. Repeatability of the test was quite good, however the predictive value of the test is still questionable since no direct correlation could be established between the different filtercake values and industrial filtration problems. No collaborative test was performed as the filterability has to be determined on unfiltered beer; the test is easy to run, and as for the other filterability tests, day to day practice in a brewery will reveal its usefulness.     

Effects of thermal treatments on five different waste activated sludge samples solubilisation, physical properties and anaerobic digestion

In order to face excess waste activated sludge management problems, sludge anaerobic digestion with thermal pre-treatment is of great interest. If most of works agree on the optimal treatment temperature (160–180 °C), results of thermal pre-treatments in terms of biogas production are very dispersed. With the aim of analysing the impact of sludge samples, thermal pre-treatments were carried on five different waste activated sludge samples.

For temperatures lower than 200 °C, COD solubilisation was found to increase linearly with treatment temperature and all the different sludge samples behaved in the same way. For temperatures lower than 150 °C, carbohydrates solubilisation was more important than proteins solubilisation. Analyses of sludge apparent viscosity, settleabilty and dewaterability (CST) of pre-treated sludge pointed out a threshold temperature of 150 °C. Thermal treatments up to 190 °C allowed the biogas production to increase during batch anaerobic digestion of sludge. Biogas volume enhancement was linked to sludge COD solubilisation and to untreated sludge initial biodegradability; the lower the initial biodegradability, the higher is the impact of thermal treatment.     

Filtration properties of activated sludge in municipal MBR wastewater treatment plants are related to microbial community structure

In the conventional activated sludge process, a number of important parameters determining the efficiency of settling and dewatering are often linked to specific groups of bacteria in the sludge – namely floc size, residual turbidity, shear sensitivity and composition of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). In membrane bioreactors (MBRs) the nature of solids separation at the membrane has much in common with sludge dewaterability but less is known about the effect of specific microbial groups on the sludge characteristics that affect this process.