Evaluation of flat sheet membrane bioreactor efficiency for municipal wastewater treatment

Aim: In this paper, the feasibility of flat-sheet membrane bioreactor (FS-MBR) for municipal wastewater treatment was studied.Materials and Methods: In this study, treatment of municipal wastewater in a submerged FS-MBR was investigated under different aeration time and flux. A bioreactor consist of microfiltration membrane (MF) and actual municipal wastewater as influent stream. The FS-MBR was operated during 161 days.Results: The result showed that average removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD 5 ), total suspended solids (TSS) and volatile suspended solids (VSS) were obtained >90% and with variation of influent COD, BOD 5 , TSS and VSS, the removal efficiency no significantly change. The mixed liquor-suspended solids (MLSS) and mixed liquor volatile-suspended solids (MLVSS) concentration during experiment increases from low concentration to about 7.9 and 6.5 g/L, respectively. The average of PO4 3+ -P, total kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), ammonia and fecal coliform (FC) removal efficiency during the operation period was 62, 98, 70% and 8 log, respectively.Conclusion: It is concluded that FS-MBR can be used in the large scale municipal wastewater treatment plants to improve effluent quality due to high removal of COD, BOD 5 , TSS and VSS to meet effluent discharge standards.