Comparison Study between Integrated Fixed Film Activated Sludge (ifas), Membrane Bioreactor (mbr) and Conventional Activated Sludge (as) Processes

Comparison study is required to evaluate the treatment efficiency of three alternative secondary treatment processes. These Processes are Integrated Fixed-film Activated Sludge (IFAS), Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) and Conventional Activated Sludge (AS). This study is required for a new wastewater treatment plant. The characteristics of the influent domestic wastewater for the proposed plant were measured. The influent wastewater is varied from low, medium and high concentrations. The treated effluent of the wastewater plant should be complied with the reuse regulations of the international standards for several purposed including non-restricted irrigation. The IFAS process has recently become popular for enhanced nitrification and denitrification in aerobic zones because it is an alternative to increasing the volume of treatment plant units to accomplish year round nitrification and nitrogen removal. The mathematical model is used to investigate the performance and treatment capability of the three proposed processes. The GPS-X (version 5.0) simulation program is used in this study to simulate the three treatment processes. The proposed plant model is consisted of three treatment stages. First stage is pretreatment unit (grit chamber). Second treatment stage is a rectangular primary clarifier. Third treatment stage is the secondary treatment units. The IFAS, AS and MBR processes are used as the three alternative secondary treatment units. It can be concluded from this results that, the treatment efficiency of the IFAS system based on BOD removal is ranged between 97.7 to 98.2 %, and based on TSS removal is ranged between 95.1 to 97.1 % for all cases of operation. Also, the treatment efficiency of the MBR system based on BOD removal is ranged between 98.1 to 99.4 %, and based on TKN removal is ranged between 97.9 to 99.1 % for all cases of operation.