A novel rotating HF membrane to control fouling on anaerobic membrane bioreactors treating wastewater

A novel rotating hollow fibre membrane (R-HFM) was assessed for filtering suspensions from a pilot Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor (AnMBR) at lab -scale during short-term trials. The effectiveness of this shear -enhanced filtration in fouling mitigation has been compared to conventional gas-sparging configuration at different permeate fluxes. A higher level of fouling prevention was obtained for the rotating HF membrane than for the gas-sparging application (93-96% versus 41-44%, respectively). For viscous and concentrated suspensions, high values of rotational speeds w were required to achieve greater effectiveness in fouling limitation, which in the present study ranged from 81% to 99%. Based upon a rotational speed step method, the effect of w on residual fouling removal was analysed. Moreover, a reduced difference between fouling rates for decreasing and growing phases, which is related to the residual fouling phenomena, was reported for w values higher than 160 rpm. (c) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.