Membranes themselves represent a significant cost for the full scale application of anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBR). The possibility of operating an AnMBR with a self-forming dynamic membrane generated by the substances present in the reactor liquor would translate into an important saving. A selfforming dynamic membrane only requires a support material over which a cake layer is formed,...

Membrane fouling precludes the widespread application of membrane filtration system from treating wastewater and drinking water, and occurs even under sub-critical flux operations. Hence the characteristics and behavior of membrane foulants should be thoroughly investigated, so as to find ways to reduce membrane fouling in membrane bioreactors. The purpose of this study is to compare the membra...

The thermally assisted mechanical dewatering process, investigated in this paper, couples in one stage mechanical dewatering at low pressure (Papplied < 1125 kPa) with a moderated heating (T < 80°C). Former studies emphasized that the separation enhancement depends on the product. To identify the mechanisms involved, a 1D filtration/compression cell is instrumented with pore liquid sensors dist...

A methodology is presented for the synthesis of fractional crystallization processes. The methodology is based on the construction of four networks. The first network is based on the identification of feasible thermodynamic states. In this network the nodes correspond to multiple saturation points, solute intermediate, process feeds and end products. The second network is used to represent the ...

A mathematical model based on simple cake filtration theory was coupled to a previously developed two-stage mathematical model for mercury (Hg) removal using powdered activated carbon injection upstream of a baghouse filter. Values of the average permeability of the filter cake and the filter resistance extracted from the model were 4.4 x 10(-13) m2 and 2.5 x 10(-4) m(-1), respectively. The flo...

A mechanistic model was derived for direct flow microfiltration (MF), one which lends more insight into the factors that control MF performance compared to a statistical curve-fitting procedure that is often used to estimate chemical cleaning intervals at pilot-scale. This theoretical approach to MF fouling was based on fundamental feed water, membrane, and cake characteristics and was shown to...

Breaking down the time limit constraints for conventional compression–permeation (C–P) cell test, this work has, for the first time, experimentally evaluated the cake characteristics of viable wasteactivated sludge subject to polyelectrolyte flocculation and to freeze/thaw treatment under a pressure range of 25–200 kPa. There exists a threshold pressure exceeding which the cake structure would ...

Polymers are typically added to flocculate sludge during wastewater treatment. We have found that cyclodextrins (CDs) boost the performance of these polymers by increasing the cake solids and drainage rates of beltor screw-pressed biological or primary sludge. These benefits are obtained at very low CD dosage. CDs also decrease the specific resistance to filtration and increase the capture rate...