Central treatment of different emulsion wastewaters by an integrated process of physicochemically enhanced ultrafiltration and anaerobic-aerobic biofilm reactor.

The feasibility of an integrated process of ultrafiltration (UF) enhanced by combined chemical emulsion breaking with vibratory shear and anaerobic/aerobic biofilm reactor for central treatment of different emulsion wastewaters was investigated. Firstly, it was found that calcium chloride exhibited better performance in oil removal than other inorganic salts. Chemical demulsification pretreatment could efficiently improve oil removal and membrane filtration in emulsion wastewater treatment by VSEP. According to aerobic batch bioassay, UF permeate exhibited good biodegradability and could be further treated with biological process. Additionally, pilot test indicated that anaerobic-aerobic biofilm exhibited an excellent ability against rise in organic loading and overall chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency of biological system was more than 93% of which 82% corresponded to the anaerobic process and 11% to the aerobic degradation. The final effluent of integrated process could meet the "water quality standards for discharge to municipal sewers" in China.