Comparison of the filtration characteristics of organic and inorganic membranes in a membrane-coupled anaerobic bioreactor

Comparison of filtration characteristics of organic and inorganic membranes was made in terms of physicochemical properties of the membrane materials, cake layer formation, backflushing and backfeeding effects in a membrane-coupled anaerobic bioreactor. For the inorganic membrane, struvite (MgNH4PO4•6H2O) was found to have accumulated inside the membrane pore and plays a key role in flux decline. For the organic, however, a thick cake layer composed of biomass and struvite formed on the membrane surface, thus causing a major hydraulic resistance. In order to mitigate flux decline for both membranes, backflushing and backfeeding modes were examined. With acidic (pH 2.0) backflushing, the flux was approximately doubled for the organic membrane. However, unexpectedly a negative effect was observed for the inorganic membrane. An alkaline backflushing instead of acidic backflushing gave rise to a flux improvement by a factor of two without any negative effect, even for the inorganic membrane. The backfeeding mode gave rise to a much higher flux compared with the normal mode in both types of membrane, although the flux returned to the same level as that with the normal mode after 6 days for the inorganic membrane. The differences between the two types of membranes were explained by membrane morphology, a ligand exchange reaction as well as a surface charge effect.