Abstract
In this study, real petrochemical wastewater treatment was investigated at four hydraulic retention times (HRTs) of 30, 18, 12 and 6 h, using membrane bioreactor. Initial evaluation confirmed the presence of styrene and more than 30 different types of compounds in petrochemical wastewater. Laboratory tests and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) studies indicated that at all HRTs, styrene and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies are higher than 99 and 95%, respectively. Further investigations also revealed that HRT decreasing, not only does not reduce the COD removal efficiency, but also improves the effluent COD by increasing mixed liquor suspended solids. Also GC–MS analysis indicated that styrene as the major pollutant was removed over 99%. Transmembrane pressure was monitored for determining membrane fouling. Data showed severe membrane fouling occurred at HRT of 6 h which was attributed to increase in soluble microbial products.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahmed Z, Cho J, Lim B-R, Song K-G, Ahn K-H (2007) Effects of sludge retention time on membrane fouling and microbial community structure in a membrane bioreactor. J Membr Sci 287:211–218
Arabjafari M, Fallah N, Dadvar M, Nasernejad B (2017) Kinetic modeling of styrene biodegradation by Rhodococcus erythropolis PTCC 1767: effect of adaptation to styrene and initial biomass concentration. Chem Eng Commun 204:182–189
Babaee R, Bonakdarpour B, Nasernejad B, Fallah N (2010) Kinetics of styrene biodegradation in synthetic wastewaters using an industrial activated sludge. J Hazard Mater 184:111–117
Babatsouli P, Palogos I, Michalodimitraki E, Costa C, Kalogerakis N (2015) Evaluation of a MBR pilot treating industrial wastewater with a high COD/N ratio. J Chem Technol Biotechnol 90:26–33
Barreto CM, Garcia HA, Hooijmans CM, Herrera A, Brdjanovic D (2017) Assessing the performance of an MBR operated at high biomass concentrations. Int Biodeterior Biodegrad 119:528–537
Bayat M, Mehrnia MR, Hosseinzadeh M, Sheikh-Sofla R (2014) Petrochemical wastewater treatment and reuse by MBR: a pilot study for ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol and olefin units. J Ind Eng Chem 25:265–271
Cai B, Xie L, Yang D, Arcangeli J-P (2010) Toxicity evaluation and prediction of toxic chemicals on activated sludge system. J Hazard Mater 177:414–419
Chang I, Lee C, Ahn K (1999) Membrane filtration characteristics in membrane-coupled activated sludge system: the effect of floc structure on membrane fouling. Sep Sci Technol 34:1743–1758
Cho J, Song KG, Yun H, Ahn KH, Kim J, Chung T (2005) Quantitative analysis of biological effect on membrane fouling in submerged membrane bioreactor. Water Sci Technol 51:9–18
Christensen MS, Hansen J, Ramlau-Hansen CH, Toft G, Kolstad H (2017) Cancer incidence in workers exposed to styrene in the Danish reinforced plastics industry 1968–2012. Epidemiology 28:300–310
Chu L-B, Yang F-L, Zhang X-W (2005) Anaerobic treatment of domestic wastewater in a membrane-coupled expended granular sludge bed (EGSB) reactor under moderate to low temperature. Process Biochem 40:1063–1070
Deng L et al (2016) Effects of hydraulic retention time and bioflocculant addition on membrane fouling in a sponge-submerged membrane bioreactor. Bioresour Technol 210:11–17
Dubois M, Gilles KA, Hamilton JK, Rebers P, Smith F (1956) Colorimetric method for determination of sugars and related substances. Anal Chem 28:350–356
Eckenfelder WW (2000) Industrial water pollution control, 3rd edn. McGraw-Hill, Boston
Fallah N, Bonakdarpour B, Nasernejad B, Moghadam MA (2010) Long-term operation of submerged membrane bioreactor (MBR) for the treatment of synthetic wastewater containing styrene as volatile organic compound (VOC): effect of hydraulic retention time (HRT). J Hazard Mater 178:718–724
Federation WE, Association APH (2005) Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater. American Public Health Association (APHA), Washington
Gao D-W, Wen Z-D, Li B, Liang H (2013) Membrane fouling related to microbial community and extracellular polymeric substances at different temperatures. Bioresour Technol 143:172–177
Gąszczak A, Bartelmus G, Greń I (2012) Kinetics of styrene biodegradation by Pseudomonas sp. E-93486. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 93:565–573
Geng Z, Hall ER (2007) A comparative study of fouling-related properties of sludge from conventional and membrane enhanced biological phosphorus removal processes. Water Res 41:4329–4338
Habib R, Asif MB, Iftekhar S, Khan Z, Gurung K, Srivastava V, Sillanpää M (2017) Influence of relaxation modes on membrane fouling in submerged membrane bioreactor for domestic wastewater treatment. Chemosphere 181:19–25
Hazrati H, Shayegan J (2015) Influence of suspended carrier on membrane fouling and biological removal of styrene and ethylbenzene in MBR. J Taiwan Inst Chem Eng 64:59–68
Hazrati H, Shayegan J, Mojtaba Seyedi S (2015) The effect of HRT and carriers on the sludge specifications in MBR to remove VOCs from petrochemical wastewater. Desalin Water Treat. https://doi.org/10.1080/19443994.2015.1125800
He Z, Miller DJ, Kasemset S, Paul DR, Freeman BD (2017) The effect of permeate flux on membrane fouling during microfiltration of oily water. J Membr Sci 525:25–34
Isma MA, Idris A, Omar R, Razreena AP (2014) Effects of SRT and HRT on treatment performance of MBR and membrane fouling. Int J Chem Mol Nucl Mater Metall Eng 8:485–489
(ISO) IOfS (1997-06) Water quality—determination of benzene and some derivatives
Lan Y, Groenen-Serrano K, Coetsier C, Causserand C (2017) Fouling control using critical, threshold and limiting fluxes concepts for cross-flow NF of a complex matrix: membrane bioreactor effluent. J Membr Sci 524:288–298
Laspidou CS, Rittmann BE (2002) A unified theory for extracellular polymeric substances, soluble microbial products, and active and inert biomass. Water Res 36:2711–2720
Le-Clech P, Chen V, Fane TA (2006) Fouling in membrane bioreactors used in wastewater treatment. J Membr Sci 284:17–53
Li B, Zhang T (2013) Removal mechanisms and kinetics of trace tetracycline by two types of activated sludge treating freshwater sewage and saline sewage. Environ Sci Pollut Res 20:3024–3033
Lin H, Gao W, Leung K, Liao B (2011) Characteristics of different fractions of microbial flocs and their role in membrane fouling. Water Sci Technol 63:262–269
Lin Q-B, Song X-C, Fang H, Wu Y-M, Wang Z-W (2017) Migration of styrene and ethylbenzene from virgin and recycled expanded polystyrene containers and discrimination of these two kinds of polystyrene by principal component analysis. Food Addit Contam Part A 34:126–132
Meng F, Zhang H, Yang F, Zhang S, Li Y, Zhang X (2006) Identification of activated sludge properties affecting membrane fouling in submerged membrane bioreactors. Sep Purif Technol 51:95–103
Meng F, Shi B, Yang F, Zhang H (2007) Effect of hydraulic retention time on membrane fouling and biomass characteristics in submerged membrane bioreactors. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 30:359–367
Mohammadi A, Alizadeh N (2006) Automated dynamic headspace organic solvent film microextraction for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene: renewable liquid film as a sampler by a programmable motor. J Chromatogr A 1107:19–28
Ren N, Chen Z, Wang X, Hu D, Wang A (2005) Optimized operational parameters of a pilot scale membrane bioreactor for high-strength organic wastewater treatment. Int Biodeterior Biodegrad 56:216–223
Rosenberger S, Kraume M (2002) Filterability of activated sludge in membrane bioreactors. Desalination 146:373–379
Rosenberger S, Laabs C, Lesjean B, Gnirss R, Amy G, Jekel M, Schrotter J-C (2006) Impact of colloidal and soluble organic material on membrane performance in membrane bioreactors for municipal wastewater treatment. Water Res 40:710–720
Salazar-Peláez ML, Morgan-Sagastume JM, Noyola A (2011) Influence of hydraulic retention time on fouling in a UASB coupled with an external ultrafiltration membrane treating synthetic municipal wastewater. Desalination 277:164–170
Schiener P, Nachaiyasit S, Stuckey D (1998) Production of soluble microbial products (SMP) in an anaerobic baffled reactor: composition, biodegradability, and the effect of process parameters. Environ Technol 19:391–399
Tischler D (2015) Microbial styrene degradation. Springer, Berlin
Wu Z, Wang Q, Wang Z, Ma Y, Zhou Q, Yang D (2010) Membrane fouling properties under different filtration modes in a submerged membrane bioreactor. Process Biochem 45:1699–1706
Yamato N, Kimura K, Miyoshi T, Watanabe Y (2006) Difference in membrane fouling in membrane bioreactors (MBRs) caused by membrane polymer materials. J Membr Sci 280:911–919
Yu D, Chen Y, Wei Y, Wang J, Wang Y, Li K (2015) Fouling analysis of membrane bioreactor treating antibiotic production wastewater at different hydraulic retention times. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24:9026–9035
Zhang X, Bishop PL, Kinkle BK (1999) Comparison of extraction methods for quantifying extracellular polymers in biofilms. Water Sci Technol 39:211–218
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by a grant funded by BIPC, Mahshahr, Iran. The Grant number of financial support is 039461780. Also, many especial thanks go to Mrs. Eidivand at R&D Department, Mr. Moavi, Mr. Tangtakabi and Mrs. Sharali at R&D Laboratory of BIPC for supporting this work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Editorial responsibility: M. Abbaspour.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zeirani, T., Fallah, N. & Nasernejad, B. Biological treatment of real petrochemical wastewater containing styrene using submerged membrane bioreactor: effects of HRT. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 16, 3793–3800 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-018-1785-9
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-018-1785-9