The Application of Membrane Bioreactor for Greywater Treatment

Abstract

Urban planning management should consider wastewater as a challenge. Wastewater, in this case, grey water, is full of dangerous contaminants and, at specific concentrations, can turn into a substance that affects the environment. The effluent of the released waste must therefore be managed to ensure that it complies with the government’s quality standard criteria. The membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology process produced waste effluents with low concentrations of biological oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total organic carbon (TOC), proving its higher efficiency as a biological processing stage. Total coliforms and E. coli are not present in processed products, detergents and total suspended solid (TSS) are effectively degraded. This is made possible by the considerably lower organic load; as a result, biomass accumulation slows and mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS), which have low value, are produced. With the assistance of continuous airflow, and without the use of chemicals or backwashing, an ultrafiltration module (UF) with a membrane cut-off size small enough to be able to create a constant permeate flux during the grey water treatment process is necessary. Although processed grey water does not pass denitrification, all parameters linked to the quality of the effluent water exceed environmental quality criteria.