High-flux operation of MBRs with ceramic flat-sheet membranes made possible by intensive membrane cleaning: Tests with real domestic wastewater under low-temperature conditions.

Abstract This study investigated the efficiency of intensive membrane cleaning for membrane bioreactors (MBRs) using a combination of mechanical scouring with granules and chemically enhanced backwashing (CEB). The implementation of such intensive cleaning was possible with ceramic flat-sheet membranes. Experiments were carried out using bench-scale MBRs at an existing wastewater treatment plant. First, CEB with NaClO was investigated in terms of the CEB frequency, duration, and concentration of the chemical reagent. CEB carried out for 60 min every 6 h, with 50 ppm of NaClO, was found to be effective, and it enabled an MBR to operate at 50 LMH, two to three times higher than the flux of full-scale MBRs. However, these CEB conditions were insufficient when the temperature was low (i.e. in winter), when an adhesive gel layer formed on the membrane surface. Its high resistance to cleaning might be explained by the increased levels of soluble microbial products and/or the presence of algal cells. Alkaline-assisted CEB, with NaClO (pH 12) and an increase in the volume of granules in the membrane tank, solved this problem. With the modified cleaning method, the fouling could be almost perfectly controlled at low-temperature conditions, such as 13 °C. MBRs may be regarded as fouling-free MBRs when the proposed cleaning method is used with ceramic flat-sheet membranes. Most real-world MBR operations operate with lower fluxes than the flux examined in this study, and at higher temperatures.