Improved bubbling for membrane fouling control in filtration of palm oil mill effluent anaerobic digester sludge

Application of anaerobic membrane bioreactor is strictly limited by the membrane fouling because of the fouling
prone nature of the feed. This study evaluates a method to enhance the effectiveness of a bubbling system for
fouling control in filtration of anaerobic digestion sludge treating palm oil mill effluent using a tilted panel
system. Such system is expected to enhance the role of biogas recirculation as the bubbling fluid for membrane
fouling control. Effect of tilting angle, bubbling rate, intermittent bubbling period, and panel switching period
was investigated. The energy consumption for applying such system was also estimated. Results show that the
tilted panel with bubbling remarkably enhance permeability by more than double of the vertical system to reach
a maximum value of 87 Lm−2 h−1 bar−1
, the highest value reported so far. The panel switching mechanism helps
to enhance the system throughput by allowing two-sided membrane panel with intermittently bubbling, in the
expense of mechanical switching energy. The estimation of energy consumption of the system has been esti-
mated at 0.247 kWhm−3 , corresponding to 0.3 % of total electricity generated from anaerobic treatment of
POME, very attractive for full-scale implementation