Catalysis, Molecular Separations and Reactor Engineering Group (CREG), Aragon Institute of Engineering Research (I3A), Universidad Zaragoza, 50018, Zaragoza, Spain.
Department of Animal Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, University of Zaragoza, 50013, Zaragoza, Spain.
Chemosphere. 2022 Nov;306:135587. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.135587. Epub 2022 Jul 4.
Membrane biological reactors (MBR) constitute an alternative to conventional wastewater treatments for improved recovery, reuse, and recycling of water. MBRs have a smaller footprint, provide better biotreatment and achieve a high-quality effluent. This work analyses the use of MBRs innovative low-cost ceramic membranes for wastewater treatment. We propose low-cost ceramic membranes as an alternative to the more expensive commercial ceramic membranes. Low-cost membranes were made of clay, calcium carbonate, potato starch, almond shell and chamotte. We synthesized two different selective layers, from clay and/or TiO. We characterized the membranes (pore diameter and water permeance) and their performance in a laboratory scale MBR. To mitigate membrane fouling and preserve the continued operation along time, the effect of different operating cycles was measured, considering two physical cleaning strategies: relaxation and backwashing. Cycles of 9 min of operation, 30 s of relaxation and 1 min of backwashing provided the lowest fouling rate. We investigated the effect of air scouring on fouling by operating with different air flow rates. Once experimental conditions were optimized, the overall performance of the different ceramic membranes was tested. The membrane with a TiO thin layer provided the best resistance to fouling, as well as a good retention capacity of E. coli, Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts.
膜生物反应器（MBR）是一种替代传统废水处理的方法，可以提高水的回收、再利用和循环利用率。MBR 占地面积小，提供更好的生物处理效果，并实现高质量的出水。本工作分析了创新的低成本陶瓷膜在废水处理中的应用。我们提出使用低成本陶瓷膜来替代更昂贵的商业陶瓷膜。低成本膜由粘土、碳酸钙、土豆淀粉、杏仁壳和熟料制成。我们合成了两种不同的选择性层，来自粘土和/或 TiO2。我们对膜（孔径和水通量）及其在实验室规模 MBR 中的性能进行了表征。为了减轻膜污染并保持长时间连续运行，测量了不同操作周期的效果，考虑了两种物理清洗策略：松弛和反冲洗。9 分钟的操作、30 秒的松弛和 1 分钟的反冲洗周期提供了最低的污染速率。我们研究了不同空气流速对污染的冲刷作用。一旦优化了实验条件，就测试了不同陶瓷膜的整体性能。具有 TiO2 薄层的膜对污染的阻力最小，同时对大肠杆菌、隐孢子虫囊和贾第虫囊也具有良好的保留能力。
