Fouling Issues in Membrane Bioreactors (MBRs) for Wastewater Treatment: Major Mechanisms, Prevention and Control Strategies

Processes

Petros K. Gkotsis³  Dimitra Ch. Banti²  Efrosini N. Peleka³  Anastasios I. Zouboulis³  Petros E. Samaras¹  Kostas A. Matis⁴ 

[1] Department of Food Technology, Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, 57400 Thessaloniki, Greece; E-Mail:;Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; E-Mail:;Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; E-Mails:Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece;

关键词: membrane fouling;    fouling control strategies;    membrane bioreactors;   

DOI  :  10.3390/pr2040795

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Membrane fouling is one of the most important considerations in the design and operation of membrane systems as it affects pretreatment needs, cleaning requirements, operating conditions, cost and performance. Given that membrane fouling represents the main limitation to membrane process operation, it is unsurprising that the majority of membrane material and process research and development conducted is dedicated to its characterization and amelioration. This work presents the fundamentals of fouling issues in membrane separations, with specific regard to membrane fouling in Membrane Bioreactors (MBRs) and the most frequently applied preventive-control strategies. Feed pretreatment, physical and chemical cleaning protocols, optimal operation of MBR process and membrane surface modification are presented and discussed in detail. Membrane fouling is the major obstacle to the widespread application of the MBR technology and, therefore, fouling preventive-control strategies is a hot issue that strongly concerns not only the scientific community, but industry as well.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.