Innovation and optimization of aeration in free bubbling flat sheet MBRs

Bing Wang; Yan Zhang; Guixiao Zhang; Kaisong Zhang; Robert W. Field

doi:10.1016/j.memsci.2021.119522

Innovation and optimization of aeration in free bubbling flat sheet MBRs

Bing Wang, Yan Zhang, Guixiao Zhang, Kaisong Zhang^*, Robert W. Field

^*Corresponding author for this work

Mechanical and Construction Engineering Department

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

22 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Free bubbling in flat sheet MBRs has been widely used in water treatment to control membrane fouling, however, the associated aeration cost discourages its wider application. To counter this drawback an innovative design of the aeration system is proposed and its evaluation indicates significantly high potential. The guiding aim is the establishment of sufficient shear stress in all membrane channels at an economical specific air demand (SAD_m). Based upon a validated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study, hydrodynamic features including shear stress, bubble size and the distribution of bubbles across neighboring channels were predicted for two designs. For both a mini 100-sheets commercial FSMBR (size of plates 448 mm × 245 mm) and a full-scale standard unit with 1800 mm × 490 mm plates, it was shown that sufficient hydrodynamic effect is induced with our modified free aeration design in a manner that moves beyond seeking to achieve bland uniformity between channels. The optimal configuration featured a channel gap at 5 mm and an aerator with an additional large side nozzle operating at an inlet velocity of 2.6 m/s. Such an arrangement would cover 12 channels. Through optimization the air consumption was successfully reduced giving a SAD_m of 0.28 Nm³m^-2h^-1, corresponding to 46% reduction with respect to traditional industrial usage of 0.51 Nm³m^-2h^-1.

Original language	English
Article number	119522
Number of pages	14
Journal	Journal of Membrane Science
Volume	635
Early online date	12 Jun 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2021.119522
Publication status	Published - 1 Oct 2021

Keywords

CFD
Economical air consumption
Flat sheet MBR
Fouling control
Free bubbling

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1016/j.memsci.2021.119522

manuscript May 2021 UNN upload (002)Accepted author manuscript, 8.2 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

@article{fa887fa3a1ad447d8f7c65f23078a69f,

title = "Innovation and optimization of aeration in free bubbling flat sheet MBRs",

abstract = "Free bubbling in flat sheet MBRs has been widely used in water treatment to control membrane fouling, however, the associated aeration cost discourages its wider application. To counter this drawback an innovative design of the aeration system is proposed and its evaluation indicates significantly high potential. The guiding aim is the establishment of sufficient shear stress in all membrane channels at an economical specific air demand (SADm). Based upon a validated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study, hydrodynamic features including shear stress, bubble size and the distribution of bubbles across neighboring channels were predicted for two designs. For both a mini 100-sheets commercial FSMBR (size of plates 448 mm × 245 mm) and a full-scale standard unit with 1800 mm × 490 mm plates, it was shown that sufficient hydrodynamic effect is induced with our modified free aeration design in a manner that moves beyond seeking to achieve bland uniformity between channels. The optimal configuration featured a channel gap at 5 mm and an aerator with an additional large side nozzle operating at an inlet velocity of 2.6 m/s. Such an arrangement would cover 12 channels. Through optimization the air consumption was successfully reduced giving a SADm of 0.28 Nm3m-2h-1, corresponding to 46% reduction with respect to traditional industrial usage of 0.51 Nm3m-2h-1.",

keywords = "CFD, Economical air consumption, Flat sheet MBR, Fouling control, Free bubbling",

author = "Bing Wang and Yan Zhang and Guixiao Zhang and Kaisong Zhang and Field, {Robert W.}",

note = "Funding information: This work was supported by grants from the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC1903205), Ministry of Science and Technology; the Bureau of Frontier Sciences and Education (QYZDB-SSW-DQC044); the Bureau of International Cooperation (132C35KYSB20160018); the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Joint Project between CAS-CSIRO (132C35KYSB20170051); FJIRSM&IUE Joint Research Fund (No. RHZX-2019-002); the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Nankai University (0085). The authors would like to thank the grant of “antifouling membranes and slug bubbling flat sheet membrane bioreactors for the next generation wastewater treatment” and Oxiamembrane Co.Ltd for technical support. RWF acknowledges the support provided by an APEX project on water reuse that has been supported by the Royal Society in partnership with the British Academy and the Royal Academy of Engineering together with generous support from the Leverhulme Trust. The authors also thank Mr. Xingbiao Chen and Dr. Olusegun Abass for their help and industrial perspective.",

year = "2021",

month = oct,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1016/j.memsci.2021.119522",

language = "English",

volume = "635",

journal = "Journal of Membrane Science",

issn = "0376-7388",

publisher = "Elsevier",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Innovation and optimization of aeration in free bubbling flat sheet MBRs

AU - Wang, Bing

AU - Zhang, Yan

AU - Zhang, Guixiao

AU - Zhang, Kaisong

AU - Field, Robert W.

N1 - Funding information: This work was supported by grants from the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC1903205), Ministry of Science and Technology; the Bureau of Frontier Sciences and Education (QYZDB-SSW-DQC044); the Bureau of International Cooperation (132C35KYSB20160018); the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Joint Project between CAS-CSIRO (132C35KYSB20170051); FJIRSM&IUE Joint Research Fund (No. RHZX-2019-002); the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Nankai University (0085). The authors would like to thank the grant of “antifouling membranes and slug bubbling flat sheet membrane bioreactors for the next generation wastewater treatment” and Oxiamembrane Co.Ltd for technical support. RWF acknowledges the support provided by an APEX project on water reuse that has been supported by the Royal Society in partnership with the British Academy and the Royal Academy of Engineering together with generous support from the Leverhulme Trust. The authors also thank Mr. Xingbiao Chen and Dr. Olusegun Abass for their help and industrial perspective.

PY - 2021/10/1

Y1 - 2021/10/1

N2 - Free bubbling in flat sheet MBRs has been widely used in water treatment to control membrane fouling, however, the associated aeration cost discourages its wider application. To counter this drawback an innovative design of the aeration system is proposed and its evaluation indicates significantly high potential. The guiding aim is the establishment of sufficient shear stress in all membrane channels at an economical specific air demand (SADm). Based upon a validated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study, hydrodynamic features including shear stress, bubble size and the distribution of bubbles across neighboring channels were predicted for two designs. For both a mini 100-sheets commercial FSMBR (size of plates 448 mm × 245 mm) and a full-scale standard unit with 1800 mm × 490 mm plates, it was shown that sufficient hydrodynamic effect is induced with our modified free aeration design in a manner that moves beyond seeking to achieve bland uniformity between channels. The optimal configuration featured a channel gap at 5 mm and an aerator with an additional large side nozzle operating at an inlet velocity of 2.6 m/s. Such an arrangement would cover 12 channels. Through optimization the air consumption was successfully reduced giving a SADm of 0.28 Nm3m-2h-1, corresponding to 46% reduction with respect to traditional industrial usage of 0.51 Nm3m-2h-1.

AB - Free bubbling in flat sheet MBRs has been widely used in water treatment to control membrane fouling, however, the associated aeration cost discourages its wider application. To counter this drawback an innovative design of the aeration system is proposed and its evaluation indicates significantly high potential. The guiding aim is the establishment of sufficient shear stress in all membrane channels at an economical specific air demand (SADm). Based upon a validated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study, hydrodynamic features including shear stress, bubble size and the distribution of bubbles across neighboring channels were predicted for two designs. For both a mini 100-sheets commercial FSMBR (size of plates 448 mm × 245 mm) and a full-scale standard unit with 1800 mm × 490 mm plates, it was shown that sufficient hydrodynamic effect is induced with our modified free aeration design in a manner that moves beyond seeking to achieve bland uniformity between channels. The optimal configuration featured a channel gap at 5 mm and an aerator with an additional large side nozzle operating at an inlet velocity of 2.6 m/s. Such an arrangement would cover 12 channels. Through optimization the air consumption was successfully reduced giving a SADm of 0.28 Nm3m-2h-1, corresponding to 46% reduction with respect to traditional industrial usage of 0.51 Nm3m-2h-1.

KW - CFD

KW - Economical air consumption

KW - Flat sheet MBR

KW - Fouling control

KW - Free bubbling

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85108005786&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2021.119522

DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2021.119522

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85108005786

SN - 0376-7388

VL - 635

JO - Journal of Membrane Science

JF - Journal of Membrane Science

M1 - 119522

ER -

Innovation and optimization of aeration in free bubbling flat sheet MBRs

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this