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SMP Production in an Anaerobic Submerged Membrane Bioreactor (AnMBR) at Different Organic Loading Rates

Anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs) have demonstrated an excellent capability to treat domestic wastewater. However, biofouling reduces membrane permeability, increasing operational costs and overall energy demand. Soluble microbial products (SMPs) that build up on the membrane surface play a si...

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Autores principales: Medina, Sandra C., Zamora-Vacca, Nataly, Luna, Hector J., Ratkovich, Nicolas, Rodríguez Susa, Manuel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7692452/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33142958
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes10110317
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author Medina, Sandra C.
Zamora-Vacca, Nataly
Luna, Hector J.
Ratkovich, Nicolas
Rodríguez Susa, Manuel
author_facet Medina, Sandra C.
Zamora-Vacca, Nataly
Luna, Hector J.
Ratkovich, Nicolas
Rodríguez Susa, Manuel
author_sort Medina, Sandra C.
collection PubMed
description Anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs) have demonstrated an excellent capability to treat domestic wastewater. However, biofouling reduces membrane permeability, increasing operational costs and overall energy demand. Soluble microbial products (SMPs) that build up on the membrane surface play a significant role in the biofouling. In this study, the production of SMPs in a 32 L submerged AnMBR operated at three different organic loads (3.0, 4.1 and 1.2 kg chemical oxygen demand (COD)/m(3)d for phases 1, 2 and 3, respectively) during long-term operation of the reactor (144, 83 and 94 days) were evaluated. The samples were taken from both the permeate and the sludge at three different heights (0.14, 0.44 and 0.75 m). Higher production of SMPs was obtained in phase 2, which was proportional to the membrane fouling. There were no statistically significant differences (p > 0.05) in the SMPs extracted from sludge at different heights among the three phases. In the permeate of phases 1, 2 and 3, the membrane allowed the removal of 56%, 70% and 64% of the SMP concentration in the sludge. SMPs were characterized by molecular weight (MW). A bimodal behavior was obtained, where fractions prevailed with an MW < 1 kDa, associated with SMPs as utilization-associated products (UAPs) caused fouling by the pore-blocking mechanism. The chemical analysis found that, in the SMPs, the unknown COD predominated over the known COD, such as carbohydrates and proteins. These results suggest that further studies in SMP characterization should focus on the unknown COD fraction to understand the membrane fouling in AnMBR systems better.
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spelling pubmed-76924522020-11-28 SMP Production in an Anaerobic Submerged Membrane Bioreactor (AnMBR) at Different Organic Loading Rates Medina, Sandra C. Zamora-Vacca, Nataly Luna, Hector J. Ratkovich, Nicolas Rodríguez Susa, Manuel Membranes (Basel) Article Anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs) have demonstrated an excellent capability to treat domestic wastewater. However, biofouling reduces membrane permeability, increasing operational costs and overall energy demand. Soluble microbial products (SMPs) that build up on the membrane surface play a significant role in the biofouling. In this study, the production of SMPs in a 32 L submerged AnMBR operated at three different organic loads (3.0, 4.1 and 1.2 kg chemical oxygen demand (COD)/m(3)d for phases 1, 2 and 3, respectively) during long-term operation of the reactor (144, 83 and 94 days) were evaluated. The samples were taken from both the permeate and the sludge at three different heights (0.14, 0.44 and 0.75 m). Higher production of SMPs was obtained in phase 2, which was proportional to the membrane fouling. There were no statistically significant differences (p > 0.05) in the SMPs extracted from sludge at different heights among the three phases. In the permeate of phases 1, 2 and 3, the membrane allowed the removal of 56%, 70% and 64% of the SMP concentration in the sludge. SMPs were characterized by molecular weight (MW). A bimodal behavior was obtained, where fractions prevailed with an MW < 1 kDa, associated with SMPs as utilization-associated products (UAPs) caused fouling by the pore-blocking mechanism. The chemical analysis found that, in the SMPs, the unknown COD predominated over the known COD, such as carbohydrates and proteins. These results suggest that further studies in SMP characterization should focus on the unknown COD fraction to understand the membrane fouling in AnMBR systems better. MDPI 2020-10-30 /pmc/articles/PMC7692452/ /pubmed/33142958 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes10110317 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Medina, Sandra C.
Zamora-Vacca, Nataly
Luna, Hector J.
Ratkovich, Nicolas
Rodríguez Susa, Manuel
SMP Production in an Anaerobic Submerged Membrane Bioreactor (AnMBR) at Different Organic Loading Rates
title SMP Production in an Anaerobic Submerged Membrane Bioreactor (AnMBR) at Different Organic Loading Rates
title_full SMP Production in an Anaerobic Submerged Membrane Bioreactor (AnMBR) at Different Organic Loading Rates
title_fullStr SMP Production in an Anaerobic Submerged Membrane Bioreactor (AnMBR) at Different Organic Loading Rates
title_full_unstemmed SMP Production in an Anaerobic Submerged Membrane Bioreactor (AnMBR) at Different Organic Loading Rates
title_short SMP Production in an Anaerobic Submerged Membrane Bioreactor (AnMBR) at Different Organic Loading Rates
title_sort smp production in an anaerobic submerged membrane bioreactor (anmbr) at different organic loading rates
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7692452/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33142958
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes10110317
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