AWWA WQTC71644

There are two main low-pressure membrane options that can be implemented as pretreatment for reverse osmosis (RO) for reclamation of water. These two options include: treatment of raw wastewater with a membrane bioreactor (MBR); and, treatment of secondary effluent from a conventional activated sludge (CAS) process using tertiary membrane filtration (TMF). One of the most important aspects to consider is the quality of permeate that is produced by these two low-pressure membrane technologies, and this comparison is the focus of this work. Two pilots were operated at a full-scale wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Guelph, Canada. The first pilot treated raw wastewater fed to the plant using a MBR. The second pilot drew effluent from the secondary process at the full-scale plant and treated it using TMF. The paper provides the operational parameters of the two parallel systems. As shown, the membrane components of the treatment systems are very similar; however, the biological components of the treatment systems are significantly different. Includes 2 references, tables, figures.