Simon Judd
Professor Simon Judd has over 20 years’ experience in teaching the fundamentals of water and wastewater technologies and is author of The MBR Book, Watermaths, and Industrial MBRs. Contact Simon at simon@juddwater.com.
Anyone working in wastewater cannot have failed to have noticed the increasing attention being paid to micropollutants. These are substances capable, we are assured, of wreaking havoc on the environment with potentially significant risk to human health.
There is a debate over whether MBRs are worth the money, when a biotreatment plant with a micro/ultrafiltration polish would suffice. There are all sorts of factors at play here.
I was privileged to attend a defence of a student PhD in the beautiful surroundings of Delft earlier this week. Apart from a rather bizarre protocol to which the university strictly adhered, entailing all examiners dressing as Jedi knights, it was a most agreeable experience.
It is recognised that MBRs − and the immersed configuration (iMBR) in particular − operate more efficiently when fluctuations in loading are reduced. If the option is available, a buffer tank can reduce fluctuations sufficiently to allow more optimal use of the membranes.
High operational costs, and energy costs in particular, are often seen as the Achilles heel of MBRs. Energy efficiency in operating MBRs has attracted a great deal of attention, particularly in relation to blowing air and aeration energy efficiency.
According to the great Tom Lehrer: 'Life is like a sewer: what you get out of it depends on what you put in'. In which case, of course, wastewater treatment reflects life. A big selling point of MBRs is the constant and high wastewater quality.
