Aerobic granular sludge (AGS) scouring to mitigate membrane fouling: Performance, hydrodynamic mechanism and contribution quantification model

Aerobic granular sludge (AGS) has been proven to have a low fouling potential in membrane bioreactor (MBR). Nevertheless, AGS scouring effect on mitigating membrane fouling remains poorly investigated. The main objective of this study is to examine AGS-MBR performance, to reveal the AGS scouring mechanism and quantify its contribution rate to membrane fouling mitigation, from the views of theory and experiment. Above all, AGS-MBR exhibited a low fouling rate ((transmembrane pressure (TMP) kept below 20 kPa) without membrane cleaning and a higher removal of organics and nutrients than conventional MBR during 80 days’ sludge granulation process. Then, flocculent sludge (FS) with various AGS ratios was applied to simulate the sludge granulation phase. When AGS ratio increased from 0% to 100%, the permeate flux gradually elevated from 40.0 L m−2 h−1 to 92.9 L m−2 h−1, and fouling resistance decreased from 9.0 × 10−12 m−1 to 3.9 × 10−12 m−1 benefiting from the loose structure and high porosity of AGS fouling layer. Meanwhile, the scouring effect produced by AGS on the membrane fouling mitigation was investigated. Based on the momentum conservation, a new hydrodynamic model was developed to explain the scouring mechanism of AGS. The scouring stress, proportional to the total amount of AGS depositing on the membrane surface, effectively reinforced the collision between AGS and FS, and reduced their deposition on the membrane surface by friction with the membrane; thus it was further conducive to membrane fouling mitigation. Moreover, a novel contribution quantification model was proposed for analyzing the contribution rate of AGS scouring effect to mitigate membrane fouling. AGS scouring possessed a significant contribution rate (39.9%) for fouling mitigation, compared with AGS structure (50.3%) and hydraulic stress (9.7%). In final, this study provides an in-depth understanding to mitigate the MBR membrane fouling by the unique advantages of sludge granulation.