MODELLING AND SIMULATION OF A SUBMERGED MEMBRANE BIOREACTOR (SMBR) SYSTEM FOR WASTEWATER TREATMENT

Abstract

This work provides wastewater treatment in a submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR) process, it is essential to comprehend the behavior of microorganism in such wastewater treatment processes. In their natural environment microorganisms encounter changes in substrate availability. They have to adapt to the new conditions in order to survive. In this study, a mathematical model has been developed for the submerged membrane bioreactor to take into account high substrate concentration inhibition present in the system with consideration of Haldane's model. An interesting property of the inhibition model is that the presence of a single resource result in a constant maximum specific consumption rate is a function of substrate concentration for growth on one substrate. The steady-state model for the treatment of synthetic wastewater in a submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR) system has been made and the simulation results have showed that the biokinetic coefficients, maximum specific growth rate (urn), maximum cell yield (Y), endogenous decay coefficient (kd) and substrate inhibition constant K in the range of 0.1853-0.2975 day-1, 0.5413-0.6189 mg/mg, 0.1061-0.1984 day I, and 534-646 mgCOD/1, respectively. Values of the coefficients, except that of /.2„„ are with in the range of those reported for conventional activated sludge processes. This model has been able to predict the biomass concentration at steady-state operation under various initial concentration of biomass present in the system for a large variation of sludge retention time (SRT). Saturation constant (Ks), how does it effect in inhibition kinetics, has also been predicted in this work.