Fate of copper in submerged membrane bioreactors treating synthetic municipal wastewater

This paper assesses the impact of copper on the performance of two membrane bioreactors (MBR) treating municipal wastewater at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 4h, and solids residence times (SRT) of 20 days, at influent copper concentrations of 0.2-8 mg Cu/L. The addition of copper resulted in a significant increase in soluble microbial products (SMPs), and a predominance of >100 kDa molecular weight SMPs. The study showed that in well-buffered wastewaters, complete nitrification was achieved at total copper concentrations as high as 840 mg/L or 10% of the mixed liquor volatile suspended solids. MINTEQ simulation showed that most of the copper (99.8%) in the MBR was in the form of inorganic copper precipitates, with free Cu2+ and total soluble copper in the range of 0.0-0.11 and 0.1-0.82 mg/L, respectively.