Enhancing the Performance of AnMBR Treating Municipal Wastewater at a High Organic Loading Rate with Iron Addition

The performance of a laboratory-scale 40 L anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) treating municipal wastewater with and without iron supplementation was evaluated at ambient temperatures at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 6 h and sludge retention time (SRT) of 50 days. The system exhibited satisfactory performance during the summer and winter periods with average COD removal efficiencies of 73 ± 4% and 60 ± 4%, respectively. Moreover, two different FeCl3 dosages were studied for optimizing operation in terms of organic load removal, phosphorus removal, biogas production, membrane fouling, and emerging contaminant removal. The addition of 25 mg FeCl3 L−1 improved the performance of the AnMBR. More specifically, average effluent COD concentrations without FeCl3 addition were 177 ± 21 mg/L, while after the addition of 25 mg FeCl3 L−1 and 30 mg FeCl3 L−1, COD decreased to 147 ± 8 mg/L and 149 ± 11 mg/L, respectively. Moreover, effluent TP decreased by 75% with the dosage of 25 mg FeCl3 L−1 and was almost completely removed with 30 mg FeCl3 L−1. The membrane performance was slightly improved by FeCl3 dosing while biogas production was not affected by iron addition. AnMBR appeared inadequate for the removal of almost all the selected micropollutants, and the effect of iron addition on micropollutant removal was very limited.