Efficiency evaluation of anaerobic membrane bioreactor for treating methylamine wastewater

CHEN Song; ZHAO He-xiang; DU Bo-wen; YANG Yu; JIAO Cheng-fan; LI Qian; LI Yu-you

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China Environmental Science ›› 2025, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (5) : 2462-2469.

Water Pollution Control

Efficiency evaluation of anaerobic membrane bioreactor for treating methylamine wastewater

CHEN Song¹, ZHAO He-xiang^1,2, DU Bo-wen², YANG Yu², JIAO Cheng-fan¹, LI Qian¹, LI Yu-you³

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Abstract

A laboratory-scale AnMBR was established to investigate the methanogenic performance, organic matter removal efficiency, membrane fouling behavior, as well as the material flow and energy conservation and emission reduction under the optimal operating conditions during the treatment of methylamine wastewater. The results showed that as hydraulic retention time (HRT) decreased from 36h to 8h, average methane yield rose from 0.231L CH₄/g COD to 0.287L CH₄/g COD. COD removal was stable above 95%, methylamine removal hit 100%. But at 6h HRT, methylamine removal was only 44.3%, reactor performance dropped, and methane yield fell to 0.094L CH₄/g COD. Membrane flux rose from 1LMH to 6LMH, transmembrane pressure (TMP) growth was slow. At 12h HRT, long operation made TMP exceed 20kPa. After replacing the membrane module, analysis show irreversible fouling inside, relate to microbial extracellular polymers. Considering comprehensively the methanogenic performance and the growth rate of TMP in each stage, the optimal operating condition is determined as HRT = 8h. More than 80% of the influent COD is converted into methane, the generated bioenergy is significantly higher than the power consumption of the system operation, the net energy potential reaches 4.142kW·h/m³, and it can reduce carbon emissions by 2.239kg CO₂/m³.

Key words

anaerobic membrane bioreactor(AnMBR) / conserve energy andreduce emissions / industrial wastewater / material balance / methylamine

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CHEN Song, ZHAO He-xiang, DU Bo-wen, YANG Yu, JIAO Cheng-fan, LI Qian, LI Yu-you. Efficiency evaluation of anaerobic membrane bioreactor for treating methylamine wastewater[J]. China Environmental Science. 2025, 45(5): 2462-2469

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