CFD modeling of fouling by biological materials in tubular membrane in submerged membrane bioreactor with ANSYS fluent software

In recent years membrane bioreactors filtration is increasingly used in wastewater treatment to enhance the quality of wastewater. The main problem in preventing the widespread use of membrane bioreactor is its congestion which has a severe impact on output flux to time ratio. If solid suspensions with high concentrations exist in the wastewater, this influence will be even more severe. In addition to the suspended solids in the liquid mixture, Extracellular polymeric materials (EPS) and soluble microbial products (SMP) are also known as basic microbial products that cause membrane fouling. EPS can be calculated within and on the membrane which increases the viscosity of suspended solids in the liquid mixture and increases filtration resistance. SMPs cannot penetrate the pores of the ultrafiltration membrane due to the limited size of the pores which would cause fouling in membrane processes. According to the above issues, providing a model that indicates the properties and conditions of formation and destruction of SMP and EPS at the same time seems necessary. In this paper, CFD modelling of biological fouling in membrane bioreactor is provided using Fluent software.