I-Corps: Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor for Sustainable Wastewater Management

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是潜在地开发使用厌氧微生物的更可持续的废水处理系统。大多数城市污水是用好氧生物技术处理的，在好氧生物技术中，微生物在消耗氧气的同时破坏污染物。添加氧气非常昂贵，可能占运行电动鼓风机以向微生物池提供扩散的空气/氧气的废水管理总运行成本的30%左右。厌氧微生物还可以破坏污染物，不需要添加氧气，并产生可再生燃料甲烷作为副产品。使用拟议技术的大型废水处理厂产生的沼气可用于建筑物，或用作汽车燃料的生物压缩天然气，以满足纤维素运输燃料的目标。此外，拟议的技术可能有助于其他应用的发展，如工业废水处理。该项目是基于降流滤池(DFF)厌氧膜生物反应器处理城市污水的潜在开发。该技术包括浮选介质、下行循环速度为11m.h-1和聚合物管式膜。以往的研究结果表明，在较低的环境温度下，DFF对低浓度废水具有较高的有机物去除效率(95%)，有望成为城市污水处理的一种有效选择。此外，能源需求可以低于其他处理系统。初步结果还表明，该技术可以处理城市污水，并达到水质特征，安全地将清洁水排放到湖泊和河流，同时产生甲烷气作为可再生能源。目标客户可能包括大型市政污水处理厂，这些工厂的设施规划正在考虑未来的升级。小型污水处理厂、没有进行设施规划的处理厂或其他客户(例如小型包装工厂应用、高速公路休息站、游轮和工业废水处理厂)也可能受益。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the potential development of a more sustainable wastewater treatment system using anaerobic microbes. Most municipal wastewater is treated using aerobic biotechnology in which microorganisms destroy pollutants while consuming oxygen. Adding the oxygen is very expensive and can represent about 30% of the total wastewater management operating cost to run electric blowers to supply diffused air/oxygen to tanks of microbes. Anaerobic microbes also can destroy pollutants, do not require oxygen addition, and produce renewable fuel, methane, as a by-product. The biogas generated from large wastewater treatment plants using the proposed technology may be used in buildings or as bio-compressed natural gas for vehicle fuel to meet cellulosic transportation fuel goals. In addition, the proposed technology may contribute to the development of other applications, such as industrial wastewater treatment. This I-Corps project is based on the potential development of the downflow filter (DFF) anaerobic membrane bioreactor to treat municipal wastewater. The proposed technology includes buoyant media, a downflow recycle velocity of 11 m.h-1 and a polymeric tubular membrane. Previous research results showed that the DFF may provide high organic removal rates (95%) of low-strength wastewater at low ambient temperature and may be an effective alternative for municipal wastewater treatment. Additionally, the energy requirement can be lower than in other treatment systems. The preliminary results also show the proposed technology may treat municipal wastewater and attain water characteristics to safely discharge clean water to lakes and rivers while producing methane gas to use as a renewable energy source. Target customers may include large municipal wastewater treatment plants where facilities planning for future upgrades is under consideration. It may be that small wastewater treatment plants, treatment plants not performing facility planning or other customers (e.g., small package plant applications, highway rest-stops, cruise ships, and industrial wastewater plants) may benefit also.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.