Evaluation of textile wastewater treatment in sequential anaerobic moving bed bioreactor-aerobic membrane bioreactor

In this study, the treatability of real textile wastewater [dissolved organic carbon (DOC): 500 mg/L), color: 6383 Pt-Co, sulfate: 362 mg/L)] was investigated in sequential anaerobic moving bed bioreactor (AnMBBR) and aerobic membrane bioreactor (AeMBR). AnMBBR was filled with 40 % career material (Kaldnes K1). The effect of different hydraulic retention times (HRTs) (6-48 h) and powdered activated carbon (PAC) addition (1 g/L) was investigated for system optimization. Sequential AnMBBR- AeMBR was successfully operated for textile wastewater treatment corresponding to 92 %, and 90 % dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and color removals, respectively. The effluent quality, dropped under 45 Pt-Co and 18 mg/L effluent values, was relatively high and complianted with discharge standards. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis showed that primary amines are successfully removed in AeMBR effluent. Fouling in AeMBR was increased when HRT was reduced, however, improved by 90 % at PAC addition conditions. Except for soluble microbial products (SMP) and soluble extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), it was observed that silicon (Si) (13.16 %) has an important role in fouling which was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Energy-Dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. Additionally, microbial community structures indicated that the membrane fouling can be caused by Alphaproteobacteria (80 %) which was the dominant culture in the biofilm layer at a maximum fouling rate.