Sugarcane vinasse treatment by two-stage anaerobic membrane bioreactor: Effect of hydraulic retention time on changes in efficiency, biogas production and membrane fouling.

This research investigated the effect of hydraulic retention time (HRT) on two-stage anaerobic membrane bioreactor (2-SAnMBR) performance treating sugarcane vinasse. The experimental setup consisted of an upflow acidogenic reactor and a continuous stirred methanogenic reactor, fitted with submersed microfiltration hollow-fiber membranes. The results indicated excellent performance and robustness of 2-SAnMBR. The reduction in HRT of 5.3-3.1days did not cause loss of its performance. The 2-SAnMBR showed high capacity of removing organic matter (97%), producing biogas (6.3Nm3 of CH4 per m3 of treated vinasse) and did not completely remove important nutrients to fertigation. Reducing the HRT, the average mass of soluble microbial products (SMP) and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) per mass of mixed liquor volatile suspended solids (MLVSS) increased. Consequently, the transmembrane pressure (TPM) rate and fouling resistance rise. Despite the fouling effect, physical and chemical cleaning processes were able to recover operational permeability.

Long-term evaluation of different strategies of cationic polyelectrolyte dosage to control fouling in a membrane bioreactor treating refinery effluent.

In this article, the long-term use of cationic polyelectrolyte to improve the sludge filterability and to control membrane fouling in bioreactor membrane while treating refinery effluents have been evaluated in pilot scale. Corrective and preventive cationic polyelectrolyte dosages have been added to the membrane bioreactor (MBR) to evaluate the membrane fouling mitigation in both strategies. The results have confirmed that the use of the Membrane performance enhancer (MPE) increased the sludge filterability and reduced the membrane fouling. During the monitoring period, stress events occurred due to the increase in oil and grease and phenol concentrations in the MBR feeds. The preventive use of cationic polyelectrolyte allowed for a more effective and stable sludge filterability, with lower cationic polyelectrolyte consumption and without decreasing MBR's overall pollutant removal performance.