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. 2019 Jun 25;24(12):2345.
doi: 10.3390/molecules24122345.

Exploring Nanosilver-Coated Hollow Fiber Microfiltration to Mitigate Biofouling for High Loading Membrane Bioreactor

Huy Quang Le  1   2 , Alieu Sowe  3 , Shiao-Shing Chen  4 , Chinh Cong Duong  5   6 , Saikat Sinha Ray  7 , Nguyen Cong Nguyen  8
Affiliations

Exploring Nanosilver-Coated Hollow Fiber Microfiltration to Mitigate Biofouling for High Loading Membrane Bioreactor

Huy Quang Le et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

For the first time, a nanosilver-coated hollow fiber microfiltration (MF) was fabricated by a simple chemical reduction method, then tested for membrane biofouling mitigation study under extreme high mixed liquor suspended solid (MLSS) concentration for long term. This study presents a simple and novel technique to modify a commercially available MF membrane using silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) followed by an investigation of mitigating membrane biofouling potentials using this modified membrane to compare with an unmodified membrane for 60-day operation period. The modified membranes showed that AgNPs was attached to the MF-membrane successfully with a high density of 119.85 ± 5.42 mg/m2. After long-term testing of 60 days in membrane bioreactor with a MLSS concentration of 11,000 mg/L, specific flux of the AgNPs coated MF (AgNPs-MF) decreased 59.7%, while the specific flux of the unmodified membrane dropped 81.8%, resulted from the increase of transmembrane vacuum pressure for the AgNPs-MF was lower than that of the unmodified one. The resistance-in-series model was used to calculate the resistance coefficients of membrane modules, and the result showed that the cake layer resistance coefficient of the unmodified membrane was 2.7 times higher than that of the AgNPs-MF after the 60-day operation, confirming that AgNPs displayed great antimicrobial properties to mitigate membrane biofouling under such high MLSS.

Keywords: membrane biofouling mitigation/control; membrane modification; microfiltration membrane bioreactor; silver nanoparticles.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
TEM image (a) and (b) UV-vis absorption spectrum of the AgNPs.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pictorial representation of (a) the unmodified membrane and (b) the AgNPs-MF membrane; SEM image of (c) unmodified membrane, (d) AgNPs-MF membrane and EDS spectra of (e) unmodified membrane and (f) AgNPs-MF membrane.
Figure 3
Figure 3
MF-MBR performance in terms of: (a) Operation condition, (b) removal of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN) and TP of unmodified membrane module and the AgNPs-MF membrane module. The dissolved oxygen and temperature of the bioreactor were maintained in the range of 3−4 MgO2/L and 25–30 °C, respectively.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The comparative study of permeate flux of the unmodified membrane module and the AgNPs-MF membrane module over the 60-day operation period.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The variation of (a) transmembrane pressure (TMP) and (b) specific flux variation for the unmodified membrane module and the AgNPs-MF membrane module.
Figure 6
Figure 6
The images of SEM and EDS spectra of (a, c) unmodified membrane and (b, d) AgNPs-MF membrane after 60 days in operation mode.
Figure 7
Figure 7
The images of SEM and EDS spectra of (a, c) unmodified membrane and (b, d) AgNPs-MF membrane after 60 days in submerged mode.
Figure 8
Figure 8
FTIR spectra of the membranes analyzed before and after the experiment in the wavenumber range of (a) 2000 to 600 cm−1 and (b) 4500 to 500 cm−1.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Schematic of the experimental setup for lab-scale MF-MBR system.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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