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Modelling Approach to Wastewater Membrane Filtration Processes

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2021) | Viewed by 15393

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
Interests: membranes; modelling; industrial wastewaters recycling; fouling and cleaning; desalination

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Guest Editor
Research Institute for Industrial, Radiophysical and Environmental Safety (ISIRYM), Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera, s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Interests: membrane technology; circular economy; waste valorization; wastewater treatment; membrane fouling and cleaning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
School of Industrial Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Interests: synthetic membranes; water and wastewater treatment; filtration
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the global scenario of water scarcity, wastewater is gaining momentum as an unconventional water source. In addition, from a circular economy perspective, wastewater represents not only an important factor for the protection of natural resources and environmental sustainability, but also a valuable resource to recover energy, nutrients, and other useful by-products.

Among current challenges in wastewater treatment, the use of membrane technologies is becoming increasingly common for biological, tertiary, or recovering treatments, offering advantages such as compactness, flexibility, and ability to operate reliably under remote control at low energy consumption. However, their major drawback in working with wastewater is membrane fouling.

Modelling these membrane separation processes is key to the study of membrane fouling. In addition, it allows the prediction of membrane filtration performance for specific experimental conditions as well as the optimization of the membrane process. The development of new models also contributes to obtaining insight into membrane fouling mechanisms in order to improve process control and make membrane processes more economically feasible.

For this Special Issue, papers on modelling approaches to wastewater membrane filtration processes are welcome. Both empirical and theoretical models as well as artificial neural networks, computer fluid dynamics, genetic algorithms, etc. are welcome. The aim is to publish research that contributes to the knowledge of membrane separation processes through modelling.

Dr. Jaime Lora Garcia
Dr. Silvia Álvarez Blanco
Dr. María Cinta Vincent-Vela
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • membrane processes
  • membrane fouling
  • modelling
  • wastewater treatment
  • water recycling

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 2687 KiB  
Article
Appraisal of Super-Fast Membrane Bioreactors by MASM—A New Activated Sludge Model for Membrane Filtration
by Derin Orhon, Ayse Begum Yucel, Güçlü Insel, Bülent Solmaz, Raif Mermutlu and Seval Sözen
Water 2021, 13(14), 1963; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13141963 - 17 Jul 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2385
Abstract
The structure of existing activated models is inherently deficient in reflecting the major role of the membrane filtration. The study developed a novel model, MASM, for the membrane activated process. The effective filtration size imposed by the membrane module, entrapping larger particles, was [...] Read more.
The structure of existing activated models is inherently deficient in reflecting the major role of the membrane filtration. The study developed a novel model, MASM, for the membrane activated process. The effective filtration size imposed by the membrane module, entrapping larger particles, was adopted as the basis of the proposed model. The model defines a modified form of COD fractionation that accounts for the captured COD fractions as additional model components and utilizes related mass-balance relationships. It was implemented to test the fate of soluble hydrolyzable COD and the system performance of super-fast membrane activated sludge based on real data for the characterization and process kinetics of domestic sewage and denim processing effluents. Model evaluation was carried out for parallel systems with gravity settling and membrane filtration operated at a sludge age range of 0.5–2.0 d. Results reflected significantly better performance by the super-fast membrane activated sludge system for both wastewaters, underlining that it was crucially important to account for the captured COD fractions to provide an accurate evaluation of system behavior and effluent quality. This should also be identified as the major shortcoming of the ASM models for evaluating and predicting the system performance of activated sludge configurations with membrane separation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modelling Approach to Wastewater Membrane Filtration Processes)
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13 pages, 1737 KiB  
Article
Steady-State Methodology for Activated Sludge Model 1 (ASM1) State Variable Calculation in MBR
by Ameni Lahdhiri, Geoffroy Lesage, Ahmed Hannachi and Marc Heran
Water 2020, 12(11), 3220; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12113220 - 17 Nov 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3996
Abstract
The complexity of Activated Sludge Model No. 1 (ASM1) is one of the main obstacles slowing its widespread use, particularly among wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) professionals. In this paper, a simplification procedure based on steady-state mass balances is proposed for the conventional activated [...] Read more.
The complexity of Activated Sludge Model No. 1 (ASM1) is one of the main obstacles slowing its widespread use, particularly among wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) professionals. In this paper, a simplification procedure based on steady-state mass balances is proposed for the conventional activated sludge process (ASP) configuration, consisting of an aerated bioreactor and a perfect settler (without particular compounds in the outlet). The results do, in fact, show perfect suitability to a membrane bioreactor process (MBR). Both organic carbon and nitrogen removal were investigated. The proposed approach was applied to ASM1, and simple analytical expressions of the state variables were obtained. These analytical expressions were then validated by comparison to simulations given by the original ASM1 (implemented in GPS-X software). A strong match (less than 4% of error overall) was obtained between both results in the steady-state; consequently, these analytical expressions may be useful as tools for quickly estimating the main state variables, feeding the filtration models, or identifying the interaction between operating parameters. Moreover, this enables a sensitivity analysis, covering relevant factors such as kinetics or operating parameters. For instance, the sludge retention time (SRT) effect is lower on XBH and XS at high SRT (˃20 days), while it is more pronounced on XP and XI as their variations with SRT are linear. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modelling Approach to Wastewater Membrane Filtration Processes)
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24 pages, 3809 KiB  
Article
Highly Saline Water Desalination Using Direct Contact Membrane Distillation (DCMD): Experimental and Simulation Study
by Noor A. Mohammad Ameen, Salah S. Ibrahim, Qusay F. Alsalhy and Alberto Figoli
Water 2020, 12(6), 1575; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12061575 - 31 May 2020
Cited by 42 | Viewed by 8159
Abstract
The path for water molecules transported across a membrane in real porous membranes has been considered to be a constant factor in the membrane distillation (MD) process (i.e., constant tortuosity); as such, its effect on membrane performance at various operating conditions has been [...] Read more.
The path for water molecules transported across a membrane in real porous membranes has been considered to be a constant factor in the membrane distillation (MD) process (i.e., constant tortuosity); as such, its effect on membrane performance at various operating conditions has been ignored by researchers. Therefore, a simultaneous heat and mass transfer model throughout the direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) module was developed in this study by taking into account the hypothetical path across the membrane as a variable factor within the operating conditions because it exhibits the changes to the mass transfer resistance across the membrane under the DCMD run. The DCMD process was described by the developed model using a system of nonlinear equations and solved numerically by MATLAB software. The performance of the poly-tetra-fluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane was examined to treat 200 g/L NaCl saline at various operating conditions. The simulation results in the present work showed that the hypothetical proposed path across the membrane has a variable value and was affected by changing the feed temperature and feed concentration. The results estimated by the developed model showed an excellent conformity with the experimental results. The salt rejection remained high (greater than 99.9%) in all cases. The temperature polarization coefficient for the DCMD ranged between 0.88 and 0.967, and the gain output ratio (GOR) was 0.893. The maximum thermal efficiency of the system was 84.5%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modelling Approach to Wastewater Membrane Filtration Processes)
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