Modeling of mixed liquor inorganic suspended solids and membrane flux at different ratio of SRT to HRT in a submerged membrane bioreactor

In order to investigate the influence of mixed liquor inorganic suspended solids (MLISS) on membrane flux at different ratio of sludge retention time (SRT) to hydraulic retention time (HRT) in a submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR), a pilot scale test was conducted for 452 days using traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) wastewater as influent. SRT/HRT was controlled at 150, 480 and 750, respectively. The experimental results showed that the average values of MLISS were 1271.9, 1664.5 and 6898.8 mg/L at different SRT/HRT, respectively; MLISS were accumulated from 265.5 g/h to 4912.93 g/h, which indicated that SMBR could not steadily operate for a long period without sludge withdrawal. Sludge oxygen utilized rate (SOUR) decreased from 5.115 to 1.292 mgO2/(gVSS h) and volume oxygen utilized rate (VOUR) increased from 10.84 to 18.13 mgO2/(L h). Model of membrane flux and MLISS were developed under different temperature and operational pressure by regressions, which were then satisfactorily employed to predict the trend of membrane flux during the experiment.