Project Page Views: [ 749 ]
| Project Metadata Element | Details |
| Project Title | Treatment of industrial waste water containing active pharmaceutical ingredients with a membrane bioreactor, with the aim of reducing resource consumption |
| Research Area | Water |
| Project Acronym | |
| Principal Investigator or Lead Irish Partner | Noel Duffy |
| Lead Institution or Organisation | Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) |
| Lead Country | Ireland |
| Latitude, Longitude (of Lead Institution) | 51.88540, -8.53455 |
| Lead Funding Entity | Environmental Protection Agency |
| Approximate Project Start Date | 09/10/2006 |
| Approximate Project Finishing Date | 09/07/2008 |
| Project Website (if any) | |
| Links to other Web-based resources | |
| Project Keywords | Pharmaceutical; Wastewater treatment; Reduced resource consumption; Sludge |
| Project Abstract | Treatment of Industrial Wastewater containing Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients with a Membrane Bioreactor with the Aim of Reducing Resource Consumption Pidraig Colm Maolcatha. The biodegradation of a selected active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) duringwastewater treatment in a membrane bioreactor (MBR) was examined experimentally. A comparison study was conducted by operating a conventional activated sludge (CAS) pilot plant in parallel to the MBR. The MBR was operated under varying conditions of pH (pH6 and pH8) MLSS (6g/L and 10g/L) and SRT (20 days and 30 days) accordingto a full factorial design of experiments. In the CAS pH and SRT were altered as above but MLSS was maintained at 3-4g/L. Comparable average API removal results of 95.5% and 95.7% were obtained for the MBR and CAS respectively. The effluent produced by the MBR surpassed the CAS in terms of the quality parameters: COD removal (MBR-97.97% CASi93.57%) total phosphorous (TP) removal (MBRi88.11% CAS-79.99%) and total suspended solids (MBRi1.08mg/L CASi62.36mg/L). Statistical analysis showed that on an individual basis high levels of each of the independent variables resulted in greatest removals of influent API. Following successful removal of the target API it is proposed that previously incinerated waste streams (approximately 156m3 per annum) be diverted to the largescaleCAS WWTP in Eli Lilly. This would result in a substantial cost saving in the order of 76,000 per annum as well as reducing the burden on incinerator capacity. A supplementary investigation into wastewater reclamation was conducted. Should aMBR be incorporated into the CAS WWTP it is proposed that the effluent be reused as incinerator quench water thus reducing well water extraction by up to 288m3 per day. |