Automated Tubular Ceramic Membrane Reactor Design for Laboratory-Scale Biofouling Analysis in Wastewater Treatment Processes

Wastewater treatment is one of the key factors in the design of smart cities. Having systems that remove new and conventional pollutants requires incorporating different technologies to achieve a synergistic treatment train. In this sense, the coupling of ultrafiltration processes with membranes takes on this challenge. However, there are factors such as biofouling phenomenon in membranes that influence its viability. This paper presents a roadmap for the design and start-up of an automated 300 kDa tubular ceramic membrane reactor system for laboratory-scale plugging analysis. The reactor, working with 25L of wastewater, simulated 3 scenarios for plugging analysis, using synthetic water dissolving low molecular weight chitosan (LWC) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) in a C/P ratio = 1.85, where three different solutions were obtained (C/P, C/P + 10 µM CaCO₃, C/P + 10 µM CaCO₃+ B. clausii). The experiment incorporating B. clausii had the lowest flux loss rate, which was reflected in a resistance of 2.62E−13, 2.18E−12 and 7.05E−14, respectively. After analyzing the cake layer structural properties, it was determined in the scenarios: C/P and C/P + 10 µM CaCO₃+ B. clausii that the flux and porosity decreased with filtrate volume, demonstrating the formation of a more complex and rougher biofouling layer. When the fractal dimension was analyzed, it was found that the solution containing B. clausii formed rougher cell clusters (2.977 vs. 2.968 and 2.972). Therefore, it is concluded that the addition of B. clausii increases the complexity of the cake layer during cake layer formation over prolonged periods of filtration.