Yoshiyuki TAMURA

Effect of Carrier Addition in a Single-Reactor Membrane-Separation Activated Sludge Process

Toshiya KOMATSU, Shoichi FUJITA, Shuji HIMENO

Nitrogen, a cause substance of the eutrophication problem, can be efficiently removed in a single-reactor membrane-separation activated sludge process by operating the reactor with intermittent aeration. This study was conducted to examine the effect of carrier addition into the reactor for investigating the possibility of shortening the hydraulic retention time (HRT) of the system. We operated reactors for 50 days in a continuous mode under four different conditions; ‡T HRT 6h with carrier, ‡U HRT 6h without carrier, ‡V HRT 4h with carrier, ‡W HRT 4h without carrier. Corn steep liquor (CSL) was used as the artificial wastewater. As the results, in the case of same HRT condition, operation with carrier showed superior performances in both nitrogen removal efficiency and the maintenance of permeate flux. Moreover, the performances of the condition ‡V was comparable to that of the condition‡U. In addition, we operated reactors for 50 days using the actual sewage with and without carrier at HRT of 6 hours. Better performances were observed in the reactor with carrier, same as the case of CSL. Results of this study suggest that the addition of carrier in the system is promising for shortening the HRT of the system.