Membrane biology

The increasing demands on effluent quality of wastewater treatment facilities require new and suitable processing concepts or technologies. Besides the purification service of the process, the costs in this case are an increasingly important factor. They can be reduced by systematic re-use and integration of existing construction works and installation technologies. Based on this, membrane biology concepts were developed as an innovative concept for the use of filtration membranes in municipal and industrial wastewater treatment.

Filtration membranes immersed in the aeration tank result a much higher biomass concentration than in conventional plants with secondary sedimentation. The permeate removed via the membranes is free of solids and germs and has service water quality.

Membrane facilities have already been employed with a high degree of success for a long time in biomass separation. However, it normally involves the energy and cost-intensive crossflow principle. In the new membrane systems, it involves immersed membranes, which show excellent performance due to a significantly lower energy and, hence, cost demands.

The performance of biological systems relevant to its space requirement can be significantly increased by saving reaction volume due to the higher biomass concentrations using the membrane as the separating procedures. In the corresponding selection of membrane separating limits, the wastewater and substrate delay time can be de-coupled, in which biologically heavy degradable wastewater contents can also be converted.

The filtration and disinfection processing steps are replaced by the membrane filtration since the permeate is germ-free and has service water quality.

Processing flow chart of a conventional clarification facility

Process flow chart using membrane biology

Demonstration of Membran Biology Facilities

The membrane biology pilot-plants is highly flexible and conceived as a mobile unit for the purification of municipal and industrial wastewater. It consists of two 20’ standard containers, which have been transformed into an office/machine container and an “open-top” wet container. The machine container includes pumps, blowers, membrane rinsing technologies, measuring technologies and switch cabinets as well as a PC with PLC and SCADA system for remote control. The immersed membrane module is located in separate membrane containers. The demonstration facility is distinguished by its high flexibility and rapid operations and is available at all required components and spare parts for construction experimentations.

Parameter	Values	Unit
Facility size	600-800	PE
Intake amount	0 - 10	m³ / h
Biology Volume in total	33	m³
Membrane area	525	m²
DS Content (depending on wastewater)	10 - 30	g / l
Installed Power	35	kW