Process Analysis and Optimization of Industrial Estate Wastewater Treatment Using Conventional and Compartmentalized Membrane Bioreactor: A Comparative Study

Membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology isan integrated combined system ofbiological and membraneprocesses to treat wastewater. MBR competently removes organic mattersand suspended solids from any typeof wastewater. This study is aimed to evaluate and compare the performance of conventional andcompartmentalized lab-scale MBR in treating an industrial estate wastewater (Faraman Industrial Estate,Kermanshah, Iran). The MBR systems were operated in two conditions; one in a completely stirredregime(conventional activated sludge (AS) system) and the other one in a semi plug flowregime(compartmentalized activated sludge (CAS) system). Experimental design was performed by responsesurface methodology (RSM) to assess the effect of two independent numerical factors i.e. hydraulic retentiontime (HRT) and mixed liquor volatile suspended solids (MLVSS) on nine responses.From the overall results,it was found that CAS-MBR performed better than AS-MBR.The CAS-MBR achieved 94.9% of TCOD removalefficiency at 24 h of HRT and MLVSS concentration of 10000 mg.L 1. Compared to AS-MBR, CAS-MBRshowed higher percentage of removal efficiency for total nitrogen andtotal Kjeldahl nitrogen. Moreover,CAS-MBR recorded the lowest SVI value of 55 mL.mg 1compared to AS-MBR. Additional microfiltration hasincreased the TCOD removal in both systems. As a conclusion, the CAS-MBR operated at the same conditionshowed higher treatment capacityin compare to AS-MBR.