Experimental Study of Application of Nano-Filtration Membrane Bioreactor (NF-MBR) for Hospital Wastewater Treatment in Iran

In this paper a pilot-scale membrane bioreactor (MBR) equipped with nano-membranes treating the hospital wastewaters has been studied in order to evaluate the overall treatment efficiency. The main goal was to examine the feasibility of the NF-MBR used to treat hospital wastewater. Process efficiency was evaluated in terms of BOD, COD, NH3_N and turbidity removal. The pilot plant located at the Babol Clinic Hospital, Babol, Mazandaran, Iran. The performance of NF-MBR pilot for biological nutrient removal was evaluated during 64 days of operation. The NF-MBR led to respective Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT) of 1.7 hr. The influent BOD5, COD, NH3_N and turbidity averaged at 195, 688, 11.8 mg/L and 174 NTU respectively. The final treated effluent for the same period averaged 17.7, 44.5, 1.69 mg/L and 4.45 NTU respectively. The operating results of the pilot plant demonstrate that the NF-MBR process is both effective and efficient in meeting the water discharge regulations and reuse quality requirements.

Membrane bioreactor (MBR); Nano-Filtration; Hospital wastewater; Pilot-scale test; Trance Membrane Pressure (TMP).