Abstract
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 (MgCO3)-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 MgCO3 pellet column. An increase in the concentration of P in the MBR effluent led to an increase in the P adsorption capacity of the MgCO3 pellets. As a result, the anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic MBR system, combined with a MgCO3 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 MgCO3 through the continuous-flow MgCO3 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.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 210 |
Journal | Membranes |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2022 Feb |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Funding: This research was supported by LOTTE Chemical (South Korea) and the Ohio Water Resources Center—the USGS 104(b) Grant. This study was partially funded by the Korea Ministry of Environment (MOE) and Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI) as a “Prospective green technology innovation project” [No. 2020003160019].
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Chemical Engineering (miscellaneous)
- Process Chemistry and Technology
- Filtration and Separation