Evaluation of laboratory submerged membrane bioreactor and reverse osmosis system for treating textile wastewater and reuse

Abstract

This study aims to assess the overall performance of a membrane bioreactor and reverse osmosis membrane for the treatment of textile effluent as well as to investigate their ability in meeting the water reuse standards. The laboratory-scale MBR-RO units were fed with textile wastewater, and the MBR effluent performance was evaluated through water quality for the parameters like total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and colour. The results reveal that the MBR system yields good quality permeate water. We obtained 99%, 90.3%, and 82.5% (average) reduction of TSS, COD, and colour, respectively, with this system. Moreover, the MBR technology is highly effective for pre-RO treatment. We also studied the impact of pressure and temperature applied to the RO membrane on the efficiency for eliminating TDS, COD, colour, and the permeate flux. The results demonstrated that the applied pressure positively affected while the feed temperature negatively affects the overall removal efficiency. This study confirms that the feed temperature, besides pressure, have a positive effect on the flux for an RO system.