Impact of the pulsed voltage input and the electrode spacing on the enhancement of the permeate flux in a dielectrophoresis based anti-fouling system for a submerged membrane bioreactor

A new electrode configuration based on dielectrophoresis (DEP) for a Submerged Membrane Bioreactors was suggested. The intensification of the permeate flux with the new system was examined experimentally using a pulsed DEP of 10 s on and 15 s off. In comparison with the test without DEP effect, the normalized permeate is 3.5; 3.9 and 4.5 times higher when applying 105 V-eff, 144 V-eff, and 220 V-eff respectively. The membrane working time is found to be 10 times higher when using DEP. The impact of electrodes spacing was also examined experimentally and numerically. It was demonstrated that a large electrodes spacing is not able to intensify the permeate flux, but it could increase the membrane lifespan by stabilising the permeate flux. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.