Search results for " fouling"
showing 10 items of 79 documents
Comparison between MBR and MB-MBR pilot plants subject to a gradual salinity increase: analysis of biokinetic and fouling behaviour
2014
Two pilot plants were investigated for the treatment of wastewater subject to a gradual increase of salinity. In particular, a membrane bioreactor (MBR) and a moving bed biofilm membrane bioreactor (MB-MBR) were studied. Carbon and ammonium removal, kinetic constants and membranes fouling rates have been assessed. Both plants showed very high efficiency in terms of carbon and ammonium removal and the gradual salinity increase led to a good acclimation of the biomass, as confirmed by the respirometric tests. Significant biofilm detachments from carriers were experienced, which contributed to increase the irreversible superficial cake deposition. However, this aspect prevented the pore foulin…
Membrane Fouling Mitigation in MBR via the Feast–Famine Strategy to Enhance PHA Production by Activated Sludge
2022
Fouling is considered one of the main drawbacks of membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology. Among the main fouling agents, extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) are considered one of the most impactful since they cause the decrease of sludge filterability and decline of membrane flux in the long term. The present study investigated a biological strategy to reduce the membrane-fouling tendency in MBR systems. This consisted of seeding the reactor with activated sludge enriched in microorganisms with polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) storage ability and by imposing proper operating conditions to drive the carbon toward intracellular (PHA) rather than extracellular (EPS) accumulation. For that purpos…
Position paper - progress towards standards in integrated (aerobic) MBR modelling.
2020
Membrane bioreactor (MBR) models are useful tools for both design and management. The system complexity is high due to the involved number of processes which can be clustered in biological and physical ones. Literature studies are present and need to be harmonized in order to gain insights from the different studies and allow system optimization by applying a control. This position paper aims at defining the current state of the art of the main integrated MBR models reported in the literature. On the basis of a modelling review, a standardized terminology is proposed to facilitate the further development and comparison of integrated membrane fouling models for aerobic MBRs. ispartof: WATER …
The role of fouling mechanisms in a submerged membrane bioreactor during the start-up
2006
Modelling biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal with soluble microbial products (SMP) production-degradation processes
2011
Over the last two decades, Membrane Bioreactors (MBR) are increasingly used for wastewater treatment. Mathematical modelling of MBR systems has played a key role in order to better explain the effect of their peculiarities. Indeed, several MBR models have been presented in literature in order to improve the knowledge on MBR systems: biological models, hybrid models which include soluble microbial product (SMP) modelling, physical models able to describe the membrane fouling and integrated models which couple the hybrid models with the physical ones. However, among the existing MBR models only few integrated models have been developed which take into account the existing relationship between…
Getting insights into the behavior of variable speed direct expansion air conditioning systems under faulty operating conditions
2019
Direct expansion air conditioning systems, such as rooftop units, are widely adopted in small and medium scale commercial buildings. In order to increase the energy performance of these systems during part-load operation, variable-speed compressors and fans have been adopted in the last two decades. However, profitable energy saving could be achieved not only by optimizing the design and the control of these systems, but also by scheduling a proper maintenance strategy. In fact, if not properly maintained, no benefits would be achieved even when more sophisticated systems are adopted. In order to support plant owners in scheduling cost-effective maintenance program, Fault Detection and Diag…
On the reliability of thermoeconomic diagnosis of fouled evaporators: assessing the influence of geometries, operating conditions and reference state
2015
Thermoeconomic diagnosis of refrigeration systems is a pioneeristic approach, which has been proven to achieve good performances (under favorable conditions) for the detection of specific faults such as condenser and evaporator fouling and compressor valve leakage. In this paper the sensitivity of performance in detecting fouled Direct Expansion (DX) coils is investigated; the examined parameters are the temperature and relative humidity of coil inlet air and the sensible/latent heat ratio of the coil (varied by considering different numbers of rows). As the thermoeconomic model requires splitting the specific exergy of cooling air into “mechanical”, “thermal” and “chemical” fractions, and …
Optimising an outdoor membrane photobioreactor for tertiary sewage treatment
2019
[EN] The operation of an outdoor membrane photobioreactor plant which treated the effluent of an anaerobic membrane bioreactor was optimised. Biomass retention times of 4.5, 6, and 9 days were tested. At a biomass retention time of 4.5 days, maximum nitrogen recovery rate:light irradiance ratios, photosynthetic efficiencies and carbon biofixations of 51.7¿±¿14.3¿mg¿N·mol¿1, 4.4¿±¿1.6% and 0.50¿±¿0.05¿kg CO2·m3influent, respectively, were attained. Minimum membrane fouling rates were achieved when operating at the shortest biomass retention time because of the lower solid concentration and the negligible amount of cyanobacteria and protozoa. Hydraulic retention times of 3.5, 2, and 1.5 days …
Analisi sperimentale e modellistica di formazione del fouling delle menbrane negi sistemi MBR
2012
La tecnologia MBR è una realtà consolidata e la sua applicazione è considerata una valida alternativa ai sistemi convenzionali, soprattutto ove il refluo depurato assuma pienamente il ruolo di “risorsa” riutilizzabile. Tuttavia, la diffusione dei bioreattori a membrana è frenata prevalentemente dall’elevato costo di investimento su cui grava, inoltre, l’impossibilità di prevedere correttamente la durata della vita utile delle membrane a causa dell’incompleta conoscenza del fouling, della sua evoluzione e delle sue conseguenze. Il fenomeno di sporcamento, infatti, è estremamente complesso e la conoscenza dei meccanismi di deposito e le proprietà sporcanti di tutti gli agenti presenti nella m…
The fouling phenomenon in membrane bioreactors: model description and strategies for energy saving
2015
Membrane fouling represents one of the major crucial issues for membrane bioreactor (MBR). Membrane fouling and high aeration requirements (for inducing shear stress to limit fouling) make MBR operation economically demanding due to high energy costs. Although several studies on MBR fouling have been performed, a comprehensive knowledge on how to reduce membrane fouling and consequently energy saving is still lacking. Two scenarios are analyzed and compared each implementing different operating conditions. As expected, MBR operation at low air flow rate (qa) leads to a substantial reduction of the operational costs (namely, 20% respect to the suggested manufacturers ones in terms of qa).