Monitoring of sludge character and treatment efficiency in membrane bioreactor fed with the wastewater of dairy industry

The wastewater which is left uncontrollably to nature, affects the environment and human health negatively. Many types of wastewater arise from industrial activities. In this thesis, the treatment of the wastewater originated from dairy industry using a membrane bioreactor was studied. The dissolved oxygen, membrane pressure, amount of treated water, temperature and pH were monitored daily in the MBR system set-up by using hollow fiber membrane. MLSS, MLVSS, SVI, CST, hydrophobicity, EPS, SMP analyses were performed for monitoring the changes in the sludge character. Treatment efficiencies were monitored with COD, NH3, PO4-P analyses carried out at certain intervals. Removal efficiencies of 99%, 82,78% and 76.5% were obtained, respectively. Consequently, it was found out that the treatment efficiency of the wastewater of dairy industry with high pollution load in the membrane bioreactor is high. Therefore, MBR is an advantageous process compared to conventional activated sludge process with features such as high quality effluent, operation in high MLSS and low HRT conditions, less space requirement, removing the need for a final settling tank.