| Author | Samarakoon, S.M.S.M.K. |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.EV-05-27 |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Master of Engineering |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Most of the existing decentralized wastewater treatment options have been mainly developed based on the septic tank concept. Extensive use of this technology is not currently advocated in urban and peri-urban areas due to its unsolved deficiencies. This research study was mainly focused on the incorporation of aerobic membrane bioreactor to overcome deficiencies. The use of the new concepts of ecological sanitation with this system helps to solve problems related to nitrogen introducing urine separation toilets. Furthermore, scarcity of water in the urban centers leads to reuse of membrane based treated wastewater for secondary purposes. The experiment was designed for the treatment of domestic wastewater on a laboratory scale using aerobic MBR. In this study, domestic wastewater and organic fraction of kitchen waste were combined prior to the treatment. It could be found that the retained kitchen waste combined with wasted sludge led to have methane production potential as 400 NmL CH4/ 1 g VS. Aerobic MBR was operated with 10 g/L of MLSS concentration and average 650 mg/L of influent COD. Experimental runs were investigated for HRT 2, 4 and 6 hours. It was noted that regardless of HRT, COD removal efficiencies were more than 98 %. Besides to that 95 % of TKN removal efficiency could be achieved, when the system was running for HRT 4 hours .Similarly, in terms of total phosphorous removal efficiency HRT 4 hours provided the removal of 93%. Furthermore, effluent water quality of each run was compared with standards and effluent from HRT 4 hours was more potential to reuse. The main issue faced in this experiment was the faster clogging of the membrane. It was found that in HRT 6, 4 and 2 hours membrane was clogged after 19,17 and 5 days of operation, respectively. In addition to that, sludge characteristics were measured in terms of EPS, SVI and CST. It could be clearly seen that there was significant increase in bounded protein while moving to HRT 2 hours and under that condition, faster fouling was observed. In order to diminish fouling problem, coupling and attached growth system with MBR was investigated, which gave promising results. |
| Year | 2005 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Environmental Engineering and Management (EV) |
| Chairperson(s) | Visvanathan, C.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Nguyen Cong Thanh;Preeda Parkpian; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | The Government of Netherlands; |
| Degree | Thesis (M. Eng.) -- Asian Institute of Technology, 2005 |