Membrane fouling behavior and microbial community succession in a submerged membrane bioreactor treating harbor oily wastewater

摘要

A membrane bioreactor (MBR) was established for treating harbor oily wastewater. It showed good removal performance for chemical oxygen demand (COD), oil content, suspended solids (SS), and other pollutants. However, serious membrane fouling occurred. It was recognized that the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) accumulated on the membrane surface, especially the proteins, were of great importance for the transmembrane pressure (TMP) increment and membrane fouling. The MBR was optimized via improving aeration rate and reducing the ratio of Ar/Ad (Ar and Ad are the cross-sectional areas of the riser and the downcomer of the MBR). The increasing rate of TMP was slowed, indicating that the optimization strategy could effectively mitigate membrane fouling. microbial community evolution was monitored and analyzed by polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE), cloning, and sequencing of 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) fragments. Results revealed that low community shift occurred during the whole operational period. Geobacter sp. and Rhodocyclales sp., which have also been identified by other studies in a petroleum refinery wastewater MBR or an infiltration basin receiving highway runoff, dominated in the MBR system throughout. Comamonas sp. was thought to accommodate the lower aeration rate in this study, while Rhodocyclales sp. preferred the higher aeration rate. In addition, during the operational time under high organic loading rate, a few species were present in abundance, and may have been responsible for the good removal performance at this time.