EVALUATION OF THE EFFICIENCY OF MEMBRANE BIOREACTOR TECHNOLOGY IN INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT

Аннотация

Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) technology is an emerging wastewater treatment method that utilizes the advantages of membrane filtration. At the Uzbekistan GTL plant, the project reuses wastewater for technological purposes by using MBR instead of traditional treatment, i.e., secondary clarifier, which provides a high level of wastewater treatment. This analytical article presents a comprehensive literature review on the use of MBR technology for various industrial wastewaters. Particular attention is paid to information on membrane selection, its configuration, and practical application of the technology. The literature review shows that MBR technology is recognized as an effective and economically viable technology thatallows wastewaterto be recycled and reused without harmful effects to theenvironment. Keywords: industrialwastewater, bioreactor, ultrafiltration, wastewater treatment, permeate. Introduction. Water is a natural resource that is important for public health and should beprotected byreducing thedischarge of pollutantsinto water systems. Domesticand industrial activities contribute to the discharge of total solids, organic matter, and dissolved solids into water. Therefore, strict standards must be met to reduce the content of pollutants in wastewater and to discharge them without harming water resources. Over the past century, as a result of population growth and industrial expansion, ecosystems essential for human life have been seriously polluted. Pollution of groundwater and surface water is caused by the discharge of industrial and domestic wastewater without complete and high-quality treatment. Although these wastewaters are usually easily biodegradable, their components such as total suspended solids (TSS), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) load theecosystem in theamount ofthousands of mg/L [1-5]. Figure 1.Traditional method (Figure 1) where the activated sludge is then returned to the bioreactor for biological treatment, instead of the traditional method (Figure 2), where the activated sludge is separated by secondary sedimentation and then returned to the bioreactor for biological treatment. This page2581 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ISSN:2692-5206,ImpactFactor:12,23 AmericanAcademicpublishers,volume05,issue05,2025 Journal: https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai allows for the effective separation of total suspended solids, including activated sludge, high organic matter, and nutrients, in a small-sized bioreactor that requires little space. Therefore, MBR technology is becoming the most effective treatment technology due to its advantages. However, its main disadvantage is that the membranes often become clogged with sludge, which causes problems in theapplication of thisprocess [6-8]. Figure 2.MBR(membrane bioreactor) method MBR technology is a form of the traditional activated sludge process combined with micro-or ultrafiltration systems. The main advantage of this technology is that it breaks down pollutants in wastewater and separates the treated water from the mixed sludge by suctioning water through the small pores of the membranes using suction pumps. Typically, the membrane pores are between 0.01 and 0.1micrometers. The bioreactor and membrane module perform the following main functions: a) in the bioreactor, organic pollutants are decomposed by microorganisms; b)using themembrane module, microorganisms are separated from the treated water. Membranes serve as a physical barrier to all suspended solids, bacteria and viruses, and at the same time ensure the return of activated sludge to the bioreactor. The separation of organic substances using a membrane is the main difference between MBR technology and traditional treatment methods, where the efficiency of the final treatment stage does not depend on the sedimentation properties of the sludge. For information, if filamentous bacteria appear in theactivated sludge in thetraditional treatment method, then theactivated sludge does not settle insecondary clarifiers, that is, activated sludge particles pass intothetreated water [9-10]. Methodology. Membrane Selection There are two main types of membrane materials: 1) polymeric; 2)ceramic. Metal membrane filters are also available, but their application in MBR technology is limited. Therefore, the membrane module must be designed in such a way that wastewater can easily pass through it. Theoretically, any polymer can be used to make a membrane, but only certain polymers are suitableforuse as membranes. These include: a) Polyethylsulfone(PES) b) Polyvinylidene fluoride(PVDF) c) Polypropylene (PP) d) Polyethylene (PE) commonly used membranes in MBR systems are microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF). When choosing a membrane, the following are considered: surface area, pore size, mechanical strength, hydrophobicity, morphology, chemical stability, density, and cost. Membrane fouling depends on the material and p