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Effect of Membranes on Refractory Dissolved Organic Nitrogen
Author(s) -
Kim MinGu,
Nakhla George
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
water environment research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1554-7531
pISSN - 1061-4303
DOI - 10.2175/106143009x12487095236757
Subject(s) - anoxic waters , membrane bioreactor , chemistry , aeration , effluent , wastewater , membrane , membrane fouling , nitrogen , dissolved organic carbon , fouling , environmental chemistry , bioreactor , pulp and paper industry , environmental engineering , environmental science , biochemistry , organic chemistry , engineering
A 500‐day comparative study with a novel membrane bioreactor (NMBR), anaerobic‐anoxic‐aerobic (A 2 /O) process, and University of Cape Town‐adapted MBR (UMBR) investigated the effect of membrane on effluent dissolved organic nitrogen (efDON) using synthetic (SWW) and municipal wastewater (MWW). The runs, comparing an NMBR and A 2 /O process, indicated 0.3 mg/L lower efDON in the former than the latter. However, NMBR and UMBR achieved similar efDON quality, with an average of 0.8 mg/L, and the DON reduction by membrane averaged 0.4 mg/L, while the A 2 /O efDON was slightly higher than DON in the aeration tank, by 0.08 mg/L, on average. The efDON during the MWW run increased by as much as 0.8 mg/L compared with the SWW run. The efDON is a component of a protein found in soluble microbial products, and it followed a cyclical temporal pattern during the runs. Membrane fouling propensity increased the efDON. This study presents evidence that membranes are effective in reducing efDON.