Desalination 185 (2005) 411417

Treatment of textile waste water by membrane bioreactor and reuse

Z. Badania*, H. Ait-Amara, A. Si-Salahb, M. Brikc, W. Fuchsc
a

F.G.M.G.P., University of Sciences and Technology Houari Boumdie`ne, B.P.32, El-Alia, 16111 Bab-Ezzouar, Algiers email: z_badani@yahoo.fr b Institute Algerian of the Petroleum, Avenue of 1st November, 35000 Boumerdes, Algeria c Institute for Agrobiotechnology, Tulln, Austria Received 20 February 2005; accepted 10 March 2005

Abstract The last techniques concerning the treatment of industrial effluents lead to the membrane bioreactor, this one becomes integrated perfectly into an industrial process allowing a quasi-total reuse of waters (it is as well one of reasons that the membranes separation are very used in the industries). This reuse of wasted effluents allows the reducing of the manufacturing cost. The objective of our study is to determine the operating conditions to the operation of external membrane bioreactor for the treatment of waste of textile industry. The pilot-plant includes a reactor of 500 L in which develops an adapted biomass. The mixed liqueur is pumped from bioreactor to the membrane owing to a centrifugal pump. For the three considered feed outputs, the experimental have shown that the average dejection of the COD is of 97%, the rate of elimination of the ammoniac nitrogen is 70%, whatever is the age of sludge. A decrease observed of 70% of the color of the treated effluent. A pilot of mobile filtration was conceived to make out a will, in the conditions hydrodynamics controllable and similar to those of the membrane bioreactor, the filterability of the sludge. Keywords: Activated sludge; Membrane bioreactor; Textile; Wastewater; Ultrafiltration

1. Introduction In the North of Africa, the shortage of water represents an actual and severe problem. For this reason and in order of durable
*Corresponding author.

development the water management in this areas is directed toward economisation and rationalization of the water resources. In this context comes the idea of recycling the water in the textile industry a sector of high water consumption [1].

0011-9164/05/$ See front matter 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved doi:10.1016/j.desal.2005.03.088

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Textile wastewater is an important pollution source that contains high concentrations of inorganic and organic chemicals and is highly colored from the residual dyestuffs. The effluents thus generated contains a wide range of contaminants, such as salts, enzymes, surfactants, oxidizing and reducing agents. In environmental terms, these contaminants mean suspended solids, COD, BOD, as well as high, pH and strong color. Biological treatment, chemical precipitation, membrane technology, activated carbon adsorption and evaporation in the common wastewater treatment techniques of textile industry effluents [2]. A membrane bioreactor (MBR), a combination process of biological reactor coupled with membrane separation device, is commonly regarded as innovative technology for wastewater treatment and reclamation. The aerobic membrane bioreactor process has successfully treated effluents from a range of industrial wastewaters, including cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, textiles, abattoirs, metal fabrication, paper and pulp, rendering and chemical manufacture. The very high quality of the treated water from au membrane bioreactor process is common to all commercial aerobic systems [3]. A literature search was conducted to evaluate the performance of MBRs for municipal wastewater treatment. The membrane bioreactor process operates in a considerably different range of parameters than the conventional activated sludge process. While solid retention time (SRT) falls in the range of 530 days for a conventional system, SRT lues frequently exceed 30 days for the MBR. The loading rate or Food/Microorganisms (F/M) ratio falls in the range of 0.05 1.5 d1 for an conventional system, but is usually 0.1 d1 for an MBR. The low F/M occurs due to the high mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) in the bioreactor, which typically range

from 5.000 to 20.000 mg/L for MBR as compared to 2000 mg/L in conventional processes. Flux rates in MBR range from 5 to 300 L m2 h1 bar1. With specific flux values ranging from approximately 20 to 200 L m2 bar1 [3,4]. The choice of the membrane results from a compromise between contradictory constraints:  research of a high quality of the treated water suitable for reuse.  Will of mastering the fouling which result from interactions between the suspension and the membrane during the filtration. The objective of this study is to determine the favorable operating conditions to the functioning of the membrane bioreactor with external buckle for the variable operating conditions to estimate the capacity of degradation, the quality of the treated water, the criteria of conception concerning the size of the reactor and the energy consumption.

2. Materials and methods 2.1. System description The schematic diagram of tangential flow MBR pilot system is shown in Fig. 1. The laboratory scale plant used is composed of a bioreactor and an external membrane. The technical characteristics of the membrane module are summarized in Table 1. The wastewater was pumped from an equalizing tank into the bioreactor. For adjustment of the air flow rate, a pressure reducing valve and a flow meter were installed. Two level sensors controlled the level in the bioreactor. The mixed liquor is pumped into the membrane module by a centrifugal pump. 1 A bioreactor (1) of 300500 l volume with 4 air membrane 2 diffusers (2) at the bottom. for adjustment and check of the air flow rate a pressure

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Textile wastewater 5 10.2 P Trented water P Ps 11.3 13 1 7 Ps 111 6 P 3 Compressed Air Q 4 P Q 101 9 FT 8 11.2 Ps Converter 121 14

413

pH Temp 122 2

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of MBR pilot.

Table 1 Characteristics of the membrane module Filtration Membranes (W0281) geometry Hydraulic diameter (mm) Mean pore size (nm) ultrafiltration polyvinylidene fluoride (7 membranes in one module total) tubular 14.4 25

7 3 manometers (10.1), (10.2) and (10.3) as well as 3 pressure sensors (11.1), (11.2) and (11.3) will be installed to display and respectively record the inlet and the outlet pressure of the membrane and the permeate pressure on a P.C. The permeate flow rate will be measured by a balance (13) connected to a P.C. for recording. 8 The temperature, oxygen concentration and pH will be controlled in on-line way, the three sensors will be submersed in the container.

5 6

reducing valve (3) and flow meter (4) is installed. A peristaltic pump (5) feeds the bioreactor with textile wastewater and is controlled by two levels sensors (12.1) and (12.2). A centrifugal pump (6) for pumping the biomass from the container into the membrane module (7) and batch the container. A frequency transformer (8) to adjust the flow rate of the centrifugal pump. An inductive volumetric flow meter (9) to measure the re-circulated flow rate.

2.2. Experimental conditions The bioreactor was filled with activated sludge from the wastewater treatment plant, at a concentration of 515 gMLSS/l. Dissolved oxygen was maintained between 1 and 3 mg/l in the aeration tank. The operating pressure varied from 0.5 to 1.5 bar. The pilot-plant was operated at a constant velocity of approximately 2m/s.

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Table 2 Characteristics of the textile wastewater Parameter Concentration, mg/l pH color absorbency at 436 nm, m1 DCOT 12805600 7.28.1 20.5138 DCOsol 8304750 BOD5 115730 N NH4 518 PO4 3 103118 TP 0.516.2

2.3. Wastewater textile composition The bioreactor was operated with real textile wastewater. Mixed textile wastewater samples were drawn from the effluent of the final equalization tank. The characteristics of the wastewater are outlined in Table 2. 2.4. Analytical Methods COD, was measured by mico-COD method proposed by HACH. Mixed liquor suspended solid were measured using the AFNOR standard method. Biochemical oxygen demand was measured :the AFNOR method : BSB 10 02 (WTW). Color was measured by standard method :DINE NISO 7887.

3. Results and discussion 3.1. Biodegradation efficiency The variation of influent and effluent COD concentration with time during the experiment is illustrated in Fig. 2. The effluent COD remained at about 240 mgO2/l although the influent COD fluctuated from 1280 to 5600 mgO2/L. Then in established regime, average removal of COD was 96%, extremely high COD on 157 day was resulted from the pump failure. 3.2. Sludge production The formation of sludge during the experiment is shown in Fig. 3. An increasing trend of sludge concentration with time resulted mainly from the prolongation of sludge retention time. The result is confirmed by [7,11]. Let us note a decline of concentration MLSS in 75 and 200
800

6000 5000 COD feed [mg/L] 4000 3000 2000

Feed Permeate

700 600 500 400 300 200

1000 0 0 50 100 150 200 Time [days] 250 300

100 0

Fig. 2. Variation of influent and effluent COD concentration with time.

COD permeate [mg/L]

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18 16 14 MLSS-MVSS [g/L] 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 0 50 100 150 Time [Days] 200 250 300

415

MLSS MVSS

Fig. 3. Variation of MLSS-MVSS with time.

days, due to an incident. After every decline, the biomass was stabilized, this can be explained by the adaptation of microorganisms. 3.3. Variation of color with time The variation of permeate and feed color with time is shown in Fig. 4. The absorbencies were obtained at 436 nm. The average

removal color was 72%. To eliminate all traces from color, we suggest a treatment downstream. These results compared with treated water quality obtained by Roozi et al. [9] show that the color concentration of treated water requires a postprocessing in nanofiltration for to eliminate all traces of color.

20 Color Permeate 120 FeedSAC 436 nm[m-1]] 100 80 60 40 6 20 4 2 0 50 100 150 200 Time [Days] 250 300 Color Feed 18 PermeateSAC 436 nm[m-1]] 16 14 12 10 8

Fig. 4. Variation of permeate and feed color with time.

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40 35 30 25 20 15 Flux TMP

10

09 TMP [bar]

Flux [L/m2h]

08

07

06 10 5 0 50 100 150 Time [days] 200 250 05

Fig. 5. Variation of permeate flux and transmembrane with time.

3.4. Permeate flux and pressure transmembrane Permeate flux is influenced by a number of factors relating to the feed water (composition), The membrane (element geometry/configuration), area and material composition), and operation (hydrodynamics), it is critically determined by the tendency of the membrane to be fouled by feed water components owing to their accumulation on the internal and external structures of the membrane [3,10,11]. Fig. 5 shows the variation of permeate flux and transmembrane with time. The pression transmembrane increased continuously, after five months of operation with a crossflow velocity of 2m/s, the membrane flux was dropped to about 152 days. It could be concluded that membrane fouling is dependent on the extent of scher stress imposed to microbiol flocs under the same operating conditions such as transmembrane pressure, organic loading rate, etc. 4. Conclusions A number of conclusions can be obtained from this study: Long-terms performance of a

tangential flow MBR for textile wastewater treatment proved the average removal COD as 97%. A hydraulic retention time in the bioreactor of 1,2 day was sufficient to obtain degradation of COD when operating at a sludge concentration of 15 g/L. The average removal color was 70%, We recommend a postprocessing in nanofiltration.

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