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Innovative Membrane Processes in Low-Carbon Wastewater Treatment

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A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Wastewater Treatment and Reuse".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2025 | Viewed by 13511

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yisong Hu

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Guest Editor

School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an, China
Interests: anaerobic membrane bioreactor; dynamic membrane; anaerobic digestion; anammox; membrane fouling; bioenergy recovery; wastewater treatment; organic waste management

Dr. Jialing Tang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, China
Interests: MBR; anaerobic digestion; nitrogen removal processes; organic waste management; wastewater treatment; fermentation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Jiayuan Ji

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Guest Editor

Institute for Future Initiatives, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
Interests: wastewater treatment technology; bioenergy recovery and reuse; anaerobic membrane bioreactor; biomass utilization; artificial intelligence; water environment microbiology; anaerobic biotechnology; molecular dynamics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Low-carbon wastewater treatment shows great potential in achieving carbon neutrality and energy-efficient wastewater management in light of sustainable development principles. As an environmentally friendly separation technology, membrane-based separation processes have attracted significant attention due to their high efficiency and reduced carbon emissions, meaning they can be widely used for various wastewater treatment (i.e., municipal wastewater, industrial wastewater, landfill leachate, etc.) at different scales. Membrane processes can be adopted for wastewater treatment, including low-pressure ones (ultrafiltration and microfiltration), high-pressure ones (nanofiltration and reverse osmosis), and the ones driven by osmosis pressure and thermal energy. With great advances in membrane fabrication, analytical methods, and artificial intelligence, novel membrane material fabrication, innovative membrane process development, system modelling, and fouling mitigation and control are becoming more popular. This Special Issue on “Innovative Membrane Processes in Low-Carbon Wastewater Treatment” of MDPI’s Water journal aims to highlight the recent developments within membrane processes in low-carbon and sustainable wastewater treatment and to discuss the challenges and opportunities for the future development.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

Innovative membrane processes for diversified wastewater treatment;
Aerobic and anaerobic membrane bioreactors;
Low-fouling dynamic membrane processes;
Electrochemical-assisted membrane processes;
Integrated system coupling membrane with advanced technologies;
Novel membrane materials and module design;
Membrane fouling mitigation and control;
Modelling on membrane filtration and fouling;
Large-scale application cases based on membrane processes.

We are looking forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Yisong Hu
Dr. Jialing Tang
Dr. Jiayuan Ji
Guest Editors

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Keywords

innovative membrane process
wastewater treatment
resource recovery
bioelectrochemical assisted membrane system
aerobic membrane bioreactor (AeMBR)
anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR)
dynamic membrane
forward osmosis (FO)
high retention membrane process
membrane fouling
permeability-selectivity trade-off
metal-organic framework (MOF)

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 3863 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Source of Methanogens and Characteristics of Methane Emission in Two Wastewater Treatment Plants in Xi’an

by Dianao Zhang, Huijuan Li, Xia Li, Dong Ao and Na Wang

Water 2024, 16(15), 2101; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16152101 - 25 Jul 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 881

Abstract

Methane (CH₄) is one of the potent greenhouse gases emitted from municipal wastewater treatment plants. The characteristics of methane emission from municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have attracted lots of concern from related researchers. The present work investigated the source of methanogens and methane emission properties from two WWTPs in Xi’an, and one is employed in an Orbal oxidation ditch, and the other is anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (A/A/O). The measurement of specific methanogenic activity (SMA) and coenzyme F₄₂₀ concentration, together with Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), was used to determine the amount and activity of methanogens in two WWTPs. Additionally, a combined activated sludge model was built and predicted the growth of methanogens and other key microorganisms in the sludge. The results showed that the average CH₄ emission flux from the Orbal oxidation ditch (22.74 g CH₄ /(m²·d)) was much higher than that from A/A/O (9.57 g CH₄/(m²·d)). The methane emission factors in the Orbal oxidation ditch and A/A/O processes were 1.18 and 0.21 g CH₄ /(m³ INF), respectively. These distinct methane emission characteristics between two WWTPs are mainly attributed to the higher activity and content of methanogens, as well as the discontinuous aeration in the Orbal oxidation ditch. Additionally, dissolved oxygen concentration, water temperature, and the presence of nitrate/nitrite were also important factors that influenced methane emission. The FISH analysis showed that Methanococcus was the dominant methanogen in both WWTPs. In addition, the combined model successfully simulated the growth of methanogens in WWTPs. Methanogens in WWTPs were mainly derived from the sewer system, and the cumulative effect led to an increase in the abundance of methanogens in activated sludge. The outcomes of this study provide new insights in the prediction and management of GHG emission from WWTPs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Membrane Processes in Low-Carbon Wastewater Treatment)

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15 pages, 6392 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Physical Model Test of Deformation Self-Adaptive Mechanism of Landslide Mass

by He Yang, Minggao Tang, Xianxuan Xiao, Guojun Cai, Yong Wei, Songlin Li, Huajin Li and Jingwei Xie

Water 2024, 16(12), 1720; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16121720 - 17 Jun 2024

Viewed by 841

Abstract

Reservoir impoundment induces a large amount of cumulative deformation of landslide body, leading to damage to the geological environment. Due to many yearly cycles of reservoir water fluctuation, the cumulative deformation of landslides tends to be stable, showing a self-adaptive deformation phenomenon. The study of the self-adaptive deformation mechanism is very important for evaluating landslide stability and achieving the safe operation of hydropower stations. To study the mechanism of self-adaptive deformation, two sets of physical models were used to monitor the groundwater, earth pressure, and cumulative deformation of landslide under periodic fluctuations of the reservoir water level. The results showed that the soil consolidation compaction, release of sliding stress, and increase in permeability are the three main factors of the self-adaptive deformation of landslide accumulation. The overall permeability decreased first and then increased, the front permeability increased greatly, and the middle and rear permeability decreased. The main factors that affected the permeability change were deformation and seepage force. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Membrane Processes in Low-Carbon Wastewater Treatment)

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17 pages, 3269 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Performance of a Double-Filter-Medium Tandem Membrane Bioreactor with Low Operating Costs in Domestic Wastewater Treatment

by Qiang Liu, Chen Li, Minglei Zhao, Ying Li, Yangyang Yang, Yuxuan Li and Siyuan Ma

Water 2024, 16(2), 361; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16020361 - 22 Jan 2024

Viewed by 1611

Abstract

To reduce the operating costs of conventional membrane bioreactors (MBRs) and improve the stability and quality of the dynamic membrane bioreactor (DMBR) effluent, a homemade inexpensive filter cloth assembly was connected to an up-flow ultra-lightweight-medium filter (UUF) in lieu of expensive membrane modules to form a double-filter-medium tandem (DT)-MBR. DT-MBR was used to treat domestic wastewater, and its removal efficiencies for chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus were similar to those of aerobic MBR, with average removal rates of 91.1%, 98.4%, 15.1%, and 50.7%, respectively. The average suspended solid (SS) of the final effluent was 5.6 mg∙L⁻¹, and the filter cloth assembly played a leading role in SS removal, with an average removal rate of 86.0% and a relatively stable removal effect with little impact via backwashing. The activated sludge zeta potential, flocculation and sedimentation properties, particle size distribution, microbial compositions, extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), and filtration resistance of the cake layer were analyzed; it was found that the cake layer, which can also be called the dynamic membrane (DM), had an excellent filtration performance. However, the DM theory could not reasonably explain why the effluent quality of the filter cloth assembly maintained good stability even after backwashing. The real reason must be related to the sieving of cloth pores. Therefore, the concept of an in situ autogenous static membrane (ISASM) was proposed. With low operating costs and good and stable effluent quality, DT-MBR is a desirable alternative to the traditional MBR. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Membrane Processes in Low-Carbon Wastewater Treatment)

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17 pages, 3538 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optimization of Critical Factors Affecting Dynamic Membrane Formation in a Gravity-Driven Self-Forming Dynamic Membrane Bioreactor towards Low-Cost and Low-Maintenance Wastewater Treatment

by Luhe Tang, Jingyu Zhang, Lulu Zha, Yisong Hu, Yiming Yang, Yunsheng Zhao, Xinglong Dong, Zhanjiu Wang, Weihang Deng and Yuan Yang

Water 2023, 15(22), 3963; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15223963 - 15 Nov 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1320

Abstract

Self-forming dynamic membrane (SFDM) formation is affected by a variety of operating conditions. However, previous studies have only focused on individual influencing factors and a systematic analysis of important factors is lacking. In this study, an aerobic self-forming dynamic membrane bioreactor (SFDMBR) was developed for the treatment of domestic wastewater with the critical factors that affect the effective formation of SFDM optimized, and the operational performances under optimized formation conditions confirmed. The results indicated that SFDM could be formed within 5 min using 48 μm stainless-steel mesh as the supporting material at a sludge concentration of 5–6 g/L and a gravity waterhead of 15 cm. And the SFDM formed could maintain a stable flux of 30–50 LMH, and the removals of COD, SCOD, and NH₄⁺-N were 93.28%, 82.85%, and 95.46%, respectively. Furthermore, the cake layer resistance (reversible fouling) contributed to 95.93% of the total filtration resistance, thus a simple physical cleaning can effectively restore the flux indicating a low-maintenance requirement. This study provides valuable insights into the optimization and application of the SFDMBR process. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Membrane Processes in Low-Carbon Wastewater Treatment)

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12 pages, 8001 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Isolation and Identification of a Carbon-Fixing Bacteria Strain and Its Efficiency for Nitrogen and Phosphorus Removal from Viaduct Rainwater

by Shiming Bi, Qingjun Zeng, Qianwen Deng, Haohua Liu, Xiaoman Zhou, Chijian Xie, Wen Liu and Yiyong Li

Water 2023, 15(16), 2916; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15162916 - 12 Aug 2023

Viewed by 2587

Abstract

In order to explore bacteria resources that are applicable for purification of viaduct rainwater, a carbon-fixing bacteria strain numbered 1C-1 was isolated from the sediment of a viaduct rainwater tank. The strain was identified through morphological characteristics and 16S rDNA sequences. The effects of three main factors (the simulated viaduct rainwater concentration, the carbon source dosage, and the inoculation amount) on the nitrogen and phosphorus removal rate of the strain were tested using simulated viaduct rainwater. Based on this, the nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiencies for the actual viaduct rainwater were verified. The results showed that the strain belonged to Streptomyces sp. Under different simulated viaduct rainwater concentrations, the strain exhibited relatively high efficiency for nitrogen and phosphorus removal at the original concentration of simulated viaduct rainwater; other conditions remaining unchanged, the purification efficiency was relatively high when the glucose dosage was 800 mg, and the removal rates of ammonia nitrogen (NH₄⁺-N), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) were 71.48%, 47.86%, and 10.43%, respectively; other conditions remaining unchanged, the purification efficiency was relatively high when the inoculation amount was 1%, and the removal rates of NH₄⁺-N, TN, and TP reached 58.62%, 58.35%, and 27.32%, respectively. Under the above optimal process conditions of an original concentration of viaduct rainwater, a carbon source dosage of 800 mg, and an inoculation amount of 1%, the strain removed 92.62%, 6.98%, and 6.16% of NH₄⁺-N, TN, and TP, respectively from the actual viaduct rainwater; more interestingly, the removal rates of NH₄⁺-N and TN were 43.26% and 78.02%, respectively, even without carbon source addition. It seems that there is no need for carbon source addition to remove nitrogen from the actual viaduct rainwater for the strain. To sum up, the carbon-fixing bacteria 1C-1 presents an obvious nitrogen and phosphorus removal effect (especially for nitrogen) for viaduct rainwater treatment and has application potential. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Membrane Processes in Low-Carbon Wastewater Treatment)

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13 pages, 1791 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Microalgae Cultivation Using Municipal Wastewater and Anaerobic Membrane Effluent: Lipid Production and Nutrient Removal

by Jialing Tang, Xiangjiang Qu, Si Chen, Yunhui Pu, Xinrui He, Zhihui Zhou, Huijun Wang, Ni Jin, Jin Huang, Faisal Shah, Yisong Hu and Abdelfatah Abomohra

Water 2023, 15(13), 2388; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15132388 - 28 Jun 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3379

Abstract

Microalgae cultivation using wastewater is a combined process for pollutant removal and lipid production that has been widely studied in recent years. In this study, the effects of anaerobic membrane effluent (AME) and municipal wastewater (MW) ratios on microalgae growth and pollutant removal processes were investigated, and the lipid production properties were also explored. Results show that microalgae can grow in all AME/WW ratios, and a 40% AME content is the optimal condition for microalgal biomass accumulation (52.9 mg/L·d) and lipid production (0.378 g/L). Higher AME addition would inhibit microalgae growth. In addition, high ammonia (approximately 97%) and phosphate (around 90%) removal efficiencies can be achieved in all AME/WW ratio conditions, while the total nitrogen removal efficiencies decreased with the addition of AME. Total nitrogen and phosphate are the limiting factors in treating water to meet the requirements of the integrated wastewater discharge standard. This study provided a new method for anaerobic digestion and municipal wastewater treatment and also realized green energy production based on the sustainable development principles. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Membrane Processes in Low-Carbon Wastewater Treatment)

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13 pages, 1700 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Influence of Nitrite on the Removal of Organic Matter and Manganese Using Pilot-Scale Biofilter: A Kinetic Study

by Lichao Nengzi, Lin Meng, Yong Qiu, Xiaoju Li, Keniu Didi, Haitao Li and Guanglei Qiu

Water 2023, 15(12), 2145; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15122145 - 6 Jun 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1397

Abstract

Nitrite produced during ammonia oxidation can inhibit the activity of microorganisms. To provide guidance for the optimization and design of a biofilter, a pilot-scale biofilter was established to investigate the influence of nitrite on organic matter and manganese removal and on the kinetics. The results demonstrated that COD_Mn, ammonia, and manganese in effluent were 2.77, 0.034, and 0.026 mg/L in the steady phase, respectively. Organic matter and manganese removal were affected by nitrite during the start-up process, as well as in the ammonia increasing process. When ammonia increased from about 0.5 to 1 and 2 mg/L, organic matter, and manganese removal were affected at 4 and 3 days and 6 and 5 days, respectively. When organic matter, ammonia, and manganese in the influent were 6.27, 2.07, and 1.19 mg/L, respectively, organic matter, ammonia, and manganese oxidation all followed a first-order kinetic rate. The k-value was 0.0268, 0.268, and 0.216 min⁻¹, and the half-life time was 24.236, 2.583, and 3.202 min, respectively. The influence of nitrite on the structure of microbial communities in the biofilter will be investigated in the future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Membrane Processes in Low-Carbon Wastewater Treatment)

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