MEMBRANE BIOREACTOR - AN EXCELLENT OPTION FOR WASTEWATER TREATMENT

The advent of membranes makes the wastewater treatment easier nowadays. Activated sludge process (ASP) , which is the oldest technique in wastewater treatment , is combined with highly efficient membrane filtration to start a sophisticated technique called Membrane Bioreactor (MBR).It is an efficient process for maintaining a long solids retention time(SRT) at a relatively short hydraulic retention time(HRT),which is needed for the treatment of waste water. MBR is favored to all other conventional techniques because the treated water is free from suspended solids and microorganisms, thus making it suitable for reuse. This unique application gives high degradation rates, extremely low sludge production and very compact design. This seminar includes the conventional activated sludge process, description of membrane bioreactor operation, various types of filtrations that are used in it, its design parameters and applications. It also gives a brief description of the cleaning of the membrane. The MBR technology has a number of advantages.The most important thing to be considered when employing an MBR is that it is not economical to run a membrane bioreactor at lowtreatment capacity and high treatment is much more complicated to stabilize.So,before,stabilizing an MBr,one should go for technical feasibility as well as economical feasibility.If these two are satisfactory,then Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) is the best option to treat municipal as well as industrial wastewater