A study on novel coupled membrane bioreactor with electro oxidation for biofouling reduction

Kamalakannan Vasanthapalaniappan, Kavitha Palani, Shanmuga Sundar Saravanabhavan, Narendranath Jonna, Maharaja Pounsamy, Kannan Natarajan, Yun Suk Huh, Balasubramanian Natesan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The present study focuses on a novel method to integrate the electro-oxidation process with membrane bioreactor to reduce biofouling and increase the biodegradability index. Here, we used electro-oxidation as pretreatment with membrane bioreactor operating at a current density of 1.5 mA/cm2 with hydraulic retention time at six h. The mixed liquor suspended solids concentration was maintained constant at 3,200 mg/L throughout the experiment for 30 days. The results obtained were promising with the percentage removal of COD, TOC, total nitrogen, and chlorides were in the range of 97%, 90%, 94%, and 15%, respectively, which was comparatively higher than the existing membrane bioreactor. The biodegradable index of treated water was higher, reaching a maximum of 0.6, which is remarkably high compared with 0.3 in a membrane bioreactor. The integrated electro-oxidation process was efficient for the complete removal of pollutants from wastewater, which was confirmed using gas chromatography. In addition, the phytotoxicity test showed a significantly higher quality of treated water compared with that of raw tannery effluent. Hence, our proposed integrated electro-oxidation process can be used to decrease biofouling with increased biodegradability index as a replacement for MBR.

Original languageEnglish
Article number200039
JournalEnvironmental Engineering Research
Volume26
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 08-2021

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Environmental Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A study on novel coupled membrane bioreactor with electro oxidation for biofouling reduction'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this