Determination of the most effective operating conditions of membrane bioreactor used to industrial wastewater treatment

The effectiveness of co-treatment of leachates from an old site of municipal landfill with a dairy industry wastewater in a membrane bioreactor has been investigated. The subjects of the study were leachates collected at the municipal landfill in Tychy and dairy wastewaters from Dairy Plant in Bieruń. The determination of the most effective technological parameters of the process, i.e. activated sludge load and its concentration and types of COD fractions in the reactor influent was made. It was shown that the activated sludge load at the level of 0.06 g COD/(g_DM · d) was the highest permissible one among all the investigated loads and the process run effectively within the whole investigated range of concentrations of activated sludge in a bioreactor. It was found that in the treated wastewater, the fraction of easily degradable organic compounds was the dominant one.