A pilot study for wastewater reclamation and reuse with MBR/RO and MF/RO systems.

Tam et al, conducted a pilot study to evaluate the effluent quality of an enhanced tertiary
process that consisted of a MBR/RO unit in order to explore the feasibility of reclamation of
treated effluent for potable and non-potable reuse applications (Tam et al. 2007).
Introduction
A membrane bioreactor (MBR) achieves both the secondary treatment of sewage as well as
pretreatment for RO and therefore has great potential to produce reclaimable water. Given
Hong Kongs population growth it needs to explore alternative water resources to reduce its
dependence on its main source, the Dongjiang River, which accounts for 75% of its fresh
water supplies (Tam et al. 2007). In light of this, the Hong Kong SAR Government has
conducted a pilot study mainly to explore the feasibility of the reclamation and reuse of the
treated effluent, the study focused on the performance of the pilot plant operating under
different conditions as well as the microbial, chemical and aesthetical qualities of the treated
water (Tam et al. 2007).
Description of the pilot plant and pilot trials
De-gritted sewage as the raw feed water was transferred through a strainer to the feed tank,
the large suspended solids in the raw feed were retained by a strainer to prevent blockage of
the membrane. Fouling of the MBR membrane was prevented by intense aeration and
intermittent effluent discharge. RO membrane fouling was controlled by dosing chloramines
or biocide together with anti-scalant. The RO recovery was between 65% and 75% (Tam et
al. 2007). 24h composite samples were collected daily and the samples were analyzed for
various parameters including pH, conductivity, turbidity, hardness, ammonia, nitrate, COD,
BOD, metals, color, E. coli, and viruses (Tam et al. 2007).
Results
The performance of the MBR/RO plant was excellent, the MBR alone reduced the
concentrations of most pollutants to under acceptable limits for non-potable water reuse
applications, the addition of the RO further improved the water quality (Tam et al. 2007).
The MBR being used to remove organic matter and nitrogen from the raw sewage as well as
a pretreatment for the RO membrane, operated stable and performed excellent in achieving
a BOD of below 2mg/L, an average effluent COD of 17.5 mg/L, suspended solids
concentration below 2 mg/L, and an overall nitrogen removal of 91% with an average
organic nitrogen effluent of 1.2 mg/L (Tam et al. 2007). The RO performance were evaluated
in terms of the permeate pollutant concentrations and the membrane rejection in terms of
conductivity. The permeate quality was excellent and most of the pollutant concentrations
were very low. Due to the salt rejection of the membrane the alkalinity of the permeate was
low (2-9 mg/l as CaCO3) as was the pH. The permeate equality in terms of conductivity,
turbidity, organic content, ammonia, nitrate and hardness could meet various quality
requirements for potable and non-potable applications. Hypochlorite together with antiscalant were dosed in order to protect the membrane from free chlorine as the MBR removal
was not sufficient (Tam et al. 2007).
The result of this pilot trial showed that the MBR/RO permeate can meet requirements of
drinking water stipulated by WHO guidelines and therefore can be used to treat raw sewage
and secondary effluent (Tam et al. 2007).

Water Reuse: >90% water yield in MBR/RO through concentrate recycling and CO 2
addition as scaling control.
Joss et al, operated a continuous pilot plant over a period of 1.5 years at a municipal
wastewater plant in Switzerland consisting of a combined MBR/RO system that
demonstrated the feasibility of achieving high quality water effluent with a yield of 90%.
MBR/RO setup
The MBR was fed with municipal waste water after primary treatment that consists of
screening and settling, and the feed flow rate was determined by the performance of the RO
membrane. The MBR unit was separated into an anoxic and aerobic compartment and the
sludge was recycled at a flow rate four times the influent flow from the aerobic to anoxic
compartment. The MBR effluent as RO feed was conditioned in a buffer tank to minimize
bio-fouling and scaling of the RO membrane. The RO unit consisted of a single multistage
centrifugal pump with a frequency modulator for pressure generation and internal recycling,
two spiral wound RO modules (Dow Filmtec NF-90-2540) were operated in parallel (Joss et
al. 2011).
Analysis
All micro-pollutants investigated were present in the original municipal wastewater and no
spiking of the water was performed. 24h composite water samples were taken and micropollutants were analyzed with an online solid phase extraction and LC-MS/MS, whereas the
nitrosamines were analyzed by offline SPE and LC-high resolution MS/MS. Anions were
measured with an ion chromatograph whereas cations were measured with a inductively
coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscope (Joss et al. 2011).
Results
Most organic micropollutants were degraded or retained to below the detection limit (< 10
ng/L) except for some polar compounds such as anticorrosive benzotriazoles as well as
some pharmaceuticals namely propranolol, diclofenac and carbamazepine. The study also
found that a comparison between the concentrations of the brine and that of the permeate
showed that a high retention was achieved by the RO unit. The concentrations were further
reduced by an ozonation step in the recycle loop. The average permeate conductivity was
found to be 280 80 S/cm which is significantly below that of the raw sewage (1300 300
S/cm). Monovalent ions were retained at more than 70% compared to the feed stream,
whereas multivalent ions were reduced to 2mg/L in the permeate and thus the water would
be suitable for reuse in terms of its salinity. The brine had an average conductivity of 6000
900 S/cm.
Over the course of the experimental period, the RO unit had an average water yield of 86.4
9.4% which correlates to a brine disposal of 12 7.3% which according to (Joss et al. 2011)
is half of what is normally disposed of. Furthermore the study found that in the long term the
membranes permeability decreased as a result of scaling, but that the problem could be
solved with sufficient dosing of anti-scalant as well as chemical cleaning. It was found that
the decline in permeability was not due to biofouling but rather to inorganic precipitation
(Joss et al. 2011).
In conclusion the study showed that double membrane (MBR/RO) systems allow for
wastewater to be reclaimed with sufficient quality water so that it may be used in various

applications, given that the concentrations of all the micro-pollutants were below the
detection levels of 10 ng/L (Joss et al. 2011).