Removal of Hospital Wastewater by Novel Nano-Filtration Membrane Bioreactor (NF-MBR)

In this paper a pilot-scale membrane bioreactor (MBR) equipped with nano-membranes treating the hospital wastewaters has been studied in order to evaluate the removal of nutrients. The main goal was to examine the feasibility of the NF-MBR used to treat hospital wastewater. Process efficiency was evaluated in terms of COD, NH3 N, NO3_N, NO3_N and PO4-P removal. The pilot plant located at the Babol Clinic Hospital,_Babol, Mazandaran, Iran. The performance of NF-MBR pilot for biological nutrient removal was evaluated during 62 days of operation. The NF-MBR resulting in respective HRT of 2.9 h. The influent COD, NH3_N and PO4-P averaged at 688, 11.8 and 3 mg/l respectively. The final treated effluent COD, NH3_N and PO4-P for the same period averaged 35, 1.69 and 0.89 mg/l respectively. The operating results of the pilot plant demonstrate that the NFMBR process is both effective and efficient in meeting the water discharge and reuse quality requirements at the hospital. The NF-MBR showed a high COD removal, stable and complete nitrification. The biological nutrient removal efficiencies were high from the start of operation with COD and NH 3 N removal efficiencies of 92 ± 4% and _88 ± 2, respectively. During the course of the experiment PO4-P removal efficiencies increased and finally PO4-P removal efficiency of 68% was achieved. Indicating that the NF-MBR effluent can be directly discharged into natural waters and it’s suitable for reuse.