Efficient Phosphorus Recovery from Municipal Wastewater Using Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal in an Anaerobic/Anoxic/Aerobic Membrane Bioreactor and Magnesium-Based Pellets

Municipal wastewater has been identified as a potential source of natural phosphorus (P) that is projected to become depleted in a few decades based on current exploitation rates. This paper focuses on combining a bench-scale anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic membrane bioreactor (MBR) and magnesium carbonate (MgCO(3))-based pellets to effectively recover P from municipal wastewater. Ethanol was introduced into the anoxic zone of the MBR system as an external carbon source to improve P release via the enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) mechanism, making it available for adsorption by the continuous-flow MgCO(3) pellet column. An increase in the concentration of P in the MBR effluent led to an increase in the P adsorption capacity of the MgCO(3) pellets. As a result, the anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic MBR system, combined with a MgCO(3) pellet column and ethanol, achieved 91.6% P recovery from municipal wastewater, resulting in a maximum P adsorption capacity of 12.8 mg P/g MgCO(3) through the continuous-flow MgCO(3) pellet column. Although the introduction of ethanol into the anoxic zone was instrumental in releasing P through the EBPR, it could potentially increase membrane fouling by increasing the concentration of extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) in the anoxic zone.