A novel approach for quantitative evaluation of the physicochemical interactions between rough membrane surface and sludge foulants in a submerged membrane bioreactor

• A new method to quantitatively assess physicochemical interactions was proposed.
• Membrane surface morphology highly affected the interaction energies with foulant.
• The method could serve as a primary tool for membrane fouling study in MBRs.

This study proposed a novel approach for quantitative evaluation of the physicochemical interactions between a particle and rough surface. The approach adopts the composite Simpson’s rule to numerically calculate the double integrals in the surface element integration of these physicochemical interactions. The calculation could be achieved by a MATLAB program based on this approach. This approach was then applied to assess the physicochemical interactions between rough membrane surface and sludge foulants in a submerged membrane bioreactor (MBR). The results showed that, as compared with smooth membrane surface, rough membrane surface had a much lower strength of interactions with sludge foulants. Meanwhile, membrane surface morphology significantly affected the strength and properties of the interactions. This study showed that the newly developed approach was feasible, and could serve as a primary tool for investigating membrane fouling in MBRs.

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