Anoxic oscillating MBR for photosynthetic bacteria harvesting and high salinity wastewater treatment

In this study, photosynthetic bacteria (PSB) were first harvested by MBR with pendulum type oscillation (PTO) hollow fiber module in succession and on a large scale. Based on unique properties of PSB, PSB/MBR was successfully applied for high-salinity wastewater treatment. Compared with control PSB-MBR (CMBR), PSB/PTO-MBR exhibited more excellent organics removal, which was mainly attributed to much higher biomass production for utilization. Meanwhile, the influence of light irradiation and aeration on activity of PSB was investigated in detail. Results showed that PTO-MBR with 12 h light irradiation proved to be a promising and economical alternative. The cycle of dark/light and anoxic had a positive effect on PSB cultivating. Moreover, PTO-MBR exhibited much higher flux than CMBR even if large amounts of biomass existed, which demonstrated that the strong shear stress on interface of liquid-membrane played important roles on membrane fouling reduction. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.