Study on Pollutant Removal Efficiency and RTD of a Submerged Anaerobic Membrane Bio - Reactor

Dilip Kumar. G , Shanmugam. P, Justus Reymond. D

Abstract

The efficient treatment of industrial effluent is one of the serious problems for the past few decades. Since the industrial effluents contain more organic pollutants, the most favorable option to treat this by biological treatment process. In the study, a lab scale submerged anaerobic flat sheet membrane bioreactor was operated with pumping operation for the treatment of tannery effluent. Since Anaerobic Membrane Bio – Reactor (AnMBR) has many advantages over Commercial Activated Sludge process, we have opted AnMBR for the study. Fouling is the main problem faced while using Membrane Bioreactors. The reactor is setup with backwash and gas recirculation to remove the fouling phenomenon temporarily. Frequent cleaning of the membrane by chemical means is also followed to remove the clogs over the pores of the membrane that cannot be easily removed by any other physical means. The reactor is also setup to collect bio – gas that can be used as a source of alternate energy. The reactor has an efficiency of 86% in terms of pollutant removal whereas the bio – gas produced has 61% methane. The RTD study is done to evaluate the fate of the pollutants inside the reactor. The reactor is run on different Organic Loading rates and the effective Organic Loading Rate is found out by RTD analysis.