Treatment of campus domestic wastewater using ambient-temperature anaerobic fluidized membrane bioreactors with zeolites as carriers

An anaerobic fluidized-bed bioreactor (AFBR) connected with an anaerobic fluidized membrane bioreactor (AFMBR) in series with natural zeolites as carriers was used to treat the campus domestic wastewater (chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 130 ± 38 mg/L) at ambient temperature (20–35 °C) in this study. Results indicate that the attached growth of anaerobic microbes was observed on the surface of zeolite and 95% of COD were removed in the AFBR after 30 days of batch operation. When the AFBR-AFMBR system was run with a HRT from 3 to 4 h, the COD, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and suspended solid (SS) were removed by 84, 87, and 96%, respectively, with the corresponding effluent COD, BOD, and SS of 20, 8, and 2 mg/L, respectively. Overall, 41% of the COD removal was attributed to coupling with sulfate reduction by sulfate-reducing bacteria in this study. In the AFMBR, the transmembrane pressure remained lower than 0.2 bar at the membrane flux of 10 L/m2-h. The membrane module was operated consecutively for 333 days without chemical cleaning. In addition, the maximum substrate utilization rate of 37 g/L-d determined based on the modified Stover-Kincannon equation elucidates that the organics in the campus domestic wastewater were readily biodegraded. This facilitated the AFBR-AFMBR system removing the organics to the levels lower than the discharging limits. •AFBR-AFMBR system effectively treated the campus wastewater at room temperature.•The AFBR with natural zeolites as carriers was start-up in 30 days.•The effluent COD and SS levels achieved the discharging limits after treatment.•Sulfate reduction by sulfate-reducing bacteria accounted for 41% of COD removal.•The organics in the campus domestic wastewater were readily biodegradable.