Wastewater treatment with primary treatment and MBR or MABR-IFAS reactor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10160679-B2
Application number	US-201515126886-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 11, 2015
Priority date	Mar 20, 2014
Publication date	Dec 25, 2018
Grant date	Dec 25, 2018

Abstract

Wastewater is treated though primary treatment of the water by way of a micro-sieve to produce a primary effluent and primary sludge. There is secondary treatment of the primary effluent by way of a membrane bioreactor (MBR) or an integrated fixed film activated sludge (IFAS) reactor to produce a secondary effluent and a waste activated sludge. The micro-sieve may have openings of 250 microns or less, for example about 150 microns. In a process, a gas transfer membrane is immersed in water. Pressurized air flows into the gas transfer membrane. An exhaust gas is withdrawn from the gas transfer membrane and used to produce bubbles from an aerator immersed in the water.

First claim

We claim:

1. A process comprising the steps of,
a) immersing a gas transfer membrane in water;
b) flowing pressurized air into the gas transfer membrane;
c) withdrawing an exhaust gas from the gas transfer membrane; and,
d) producing bubbles comprising the exhaust gas from an aerator immersed in the water,
wherein the exhaust gas has a pressure larger than the static head of water above the aerator.

2. The process of claim 1 wherein the exhaust gas is supplied to the aerator without increasing the pressure of the exhaust gas.

3. The process of claim 1 further comprising supporting a biofilm on the gas transfer membrane and transferring oxygen to the biofilm.

4. The process of claim 1 further comprising a step of providing a suspended biomass in the water.

5. The process of claim 1 , wherein the water is anoxic or aerobic.

6. The process of claim 1 , wherein in step d) the bubbles are produced for 0.5 to 20 seconds at least once every 200 seconds or for 0.5 to 3 seconds at least once every 20 seconds.

7. An apparatus comprising,
a first header,
a second header,
a plurality of gas transfer membranes extending between the headers,
a gas inlet to the first header,
a gas outlet from the second header, and
an aerator connected to the gas outlet and located between or below the gas transfer membranes.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the aerator comprises a transducer configured to release bursts of bubbles.

Assignees

• Gen Electric
• Bl Technologies Inc

Inventors

• Cote Pierre Lucien
• Pedersen Steven Kristian
• Syed Wajahat Hussain
• Peeters Jeffrey Gerard
• Adams Nicholas William H
• Hong Youngseck
• Koops Geert-Henk
• Royston James John

Classifications

• C02F1/004

  using large scale industrial sized filters · CPC title

• C02F2101/16

  Nitrogen compounds, e.g. ammonia · CPC title

• C02F3/1273 Primary

  Submerged membrane bioreactors · CPC title

• C02F3/201 Primary

  Perforated, resilient plastic diffusers, e.g. membranes, sheets, foils, tubes, hoses · CPC title

• C02F3/1268

  Membrane bioreactor systems · CPC title