Effects of novel anaerobic baffled biofilm membrane bioreactor configurations on membrane fouling mitigation and microbial community in treating liquor condensate

A novel anaerobic baffled biofilm-membrane bioreactor (AnBB-MBR) was developed to treat industrial liquor condensate. In order to minimize membrane fouling, three different reactor configurations of R1:No media (anaerobic baffled MBR), R2:FF (Fixed Film AnBB-MBR) and R3:FF + MVB (Fixed Film and Moving Bed AnBBMBR) were evaluated at the same operating hydraulic retention time of 3 days. The specific fouling rates of the ceramic membranes were 0.98, 0.84 and 0.5 kPa/L/m2 for R1:No media, R2:FF and R3:FF + MVB, respectively. The R2:FF and R3:FF + MVB reactors could mitigate the membrane fouling rates by 14.1% and 48.9%, compared to R1:No media due to biomass retention in the fixed film and mechanical scouring of the MVB. From the microbial community analysis, higher relative abundances of Methanosaeta were found in the biofilm whereas more Methanobacterium was found in the suspended sludge. Moreover, higher accumulations of humic and fulvic substances in the system could inhibit the methanogenic activity.