Foaming in membrane bioreactors: Identification of the causes

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) represent by now a well established alternative for wastewater treatment. Their increasing development is undoubtedly related to the several advantages that such technology is able to guarantee. Nevertheless, this technology is not exempt from operational problems; among them the foaming still represents an “open challenge” of the MBR field, due to the high complexity of phenomenon. Unfortunately, very little work has been done on the foaming in MBRs and further studies are required. Actually, there is not a distinct difference between conventional activated system and MBR: the main difference is that the MBR plants can retain most Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPSs) in the bioreactor. For these reason, unlike conventional activated sludge systems, MBRs have experienced foaming in the absence of foam-forming micro-organisms. Nevertheless, the actual mechanisms of EPS production and the role of bacteria in producing foam in activated sludge in MBRs are still unclear. In this paper, the authors investigated the roles of EPS and foam-forming filamentous bacteria by analyzing samples from different pilot plants using MBRs. In particular, in order to define the macroscopic features and the role of EPS and filamentous bacteria, a Modified Scum Index (MSI) test was applied and proposed. Based on the MSI and the foam power test, the causes of biological foaming were identified in terms of the potential for foaming, the quality and the quantity of the foam. The results indicated that the MBR foaming was influenced significantly by the concentration of bound EPSs in the sludge. In addition, the quantity and stability of MBR scum increased when both bound EPSs and foam-forming filamentous bacteria were present in the activated sludge.