Treatment of cheese whey by a cross-flow anaerobic membrane bioreactor: Biological and filtration performance

Whey, produced in large quantities during cheese production, is a rapidly fermentable high strength wastewater characterized by a high biodegradability and low alkalinity. In this study, a lab-scale cross-flow anaerobic membrane bioreactor was used to address the commonly experienced difficulties such as unstable reactor performance and...

Biological performance and sludge filterability of anaerobic membrane bioreactors under nitrogen limited and supplied conditions

The impact of nitrogen on biological performance and sludge filterability of anaerobic membrane bioreactors was investigated in two lab-scale cross-flow anaerobic membrane bioreactors that were fed with cheese whey at two different COD:TKN ratios (50 and 190). Nitrogen deprivation adversely affected the biological treatment performance and...

Treatment of industrial wastewaters by anaerobic membrane bioreactors: Implications of substrate characteristics

The success of anaerobic digestion relies on the presence of highly active methanogenic biomass, requiring effective retention of slow growing anaerobic microorganisms inside bioreactor by decoupling the hydraulic retention time (HRT) from solids residence time (SRT) or the employment of long SRTs in fully mixed systems. So far, flow through...

Anaerobic membrane bio-reactors for severe industrial effluents and urban spill waters: The AMBROSIUS project

With growing application experiences from aerobic membrane bioreactors, combination of membrane and anaerobic processes become more and more attractive and feasible. In anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs), biomass and particulate organic matter are physically retained inside the reactor, providing optimal conditions for organic matter...

Performances of anaerobic membrane bioreactors treating thin stillage from bioethanol plants at different sludge retention times

Ethanol production, as a renewable energy source and fuel additive, form starch based grains such as corn and wheat has increased rapidly in recent years to mitigate green-house gas emissions due to the extensive usage of fossil fuels and to regulate the instabilities in global fuel supply (Gao et al., 2011, Wilkie et al., 2000). However, bio...

Performances of Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactors Treating Thin Stillage from Bioethanol Plants at Different Sludge Retention Times