COMPARISON OF BIOKINETIC COEFFICIENTS OF LAB SCALE MBR SYSTEMS AT IESE, NUST

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine biokinetic coefficients and efficiency of membrane bioreactors operated at lab scale in IESE, NUST for treating synthetic municipal wastewater (500 mg/L glucose COD) at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 8 hrs. The activated sludge was collected from sewage treatment plant 1-9, Islamabad and was acclimatized with synthetic wastewater for a time period of 60 days. The bacterial grovÄh curves were measured by spread plate count (SPC) technique as per standard methods. The physicochemical parameters such as temperature, pH, DO, TOC and TN removal and changes in V SS concentrations over time were estimated to determine their efficiency. On the basis of performance efficiency, MBR was selected to treat textile wastewater. Synthetic textile wastewater was based upon the characterization of real wastewater collected from Crescent Textile Mills, Faisalabad. The wastewater constituents simulated high strength textile wastewater having average COD value of 1000 mg/L. Treatment of synthetic textile wastewater was supplemented with powdered activated carbon (PAC) as an adsorbent for the removal of soluble organic and inorganic substances in the reactor. The Monod rate equation was applied for estimating specific growth rate (g), decay rate constant (Kd), yield coefficient (Y), half velocity constant (KS) and maximum specific growth rate (um). This study will provide baseline data for the establishment of pilot scale membrane treatment plant at NUST, for treating wastewater (15000 gallons/day) generated by the campus.