Performance Evaluation of Membrane-Aerated Biofilm Reactor for Acetonitrile Wastewater Treatment
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 7
Abstract
Biological treatment for volatile organic compound (VOC)–contaminated wastewater with conventional aeration methods causes significant stripping loss of pollutants due to its high volatility. To overcome this problem, the membrane-aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) was developed. The aim of this study was to reduce acetonitrile (ACN) stripping loss during the aeration process and to evaluate MABR performance under different hydraulic retention times (HRTs) and ACN surface loading rates. The MABR was operated with an inlet ACN concentration of at four HRT conditions—4, 6, 9, and 12 h. Experimental results indicated that nearly 49% of ACN was stripped due to mechanical aeration, whereas stripping loss due to MABR was approximately 0.1%. A HRT of 6 h was found to be the optimum condition with removal efficiencies of ACN, total organic carbon (TOC), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total nitrogen (TN) at 98%, 87%, 84%, and 69%, respectively. This MABR could achieve removal of ACN with a maximum surface loading rate and removal capacity of 3.75 and , respectively. This study therefore established improved MABR efficiency with shorter HRT requirements.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request.
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Calculation of theoretical oxygen requirement for ACN biodegradation,
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Experimental results of OTRs,
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Experimental results of ACN stripping,
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Experimental results of MABR performance in terms of ACN, and COD, TOC, and nitrogen compounds,
Acknowledgments
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, or publication of this article. Special thanks go to Dr. Eoin Syron for providing the PDMS membrane modules from OxyMem Limited, Ireland.
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 7 • July 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 5, 2019
Accepted: Dec 3, 2019
Published online: Apr 24, 2020
Published in print: Jul 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Sep 24, 2020
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