Case Study

Industrial Waste Water Treatment Plant, using

MEMBRAY
Membrane
Bio-reactor
(MBR)
technology, as pre-treatment of Reverse Osmosis (RO)

Figure 1: Overview of the new treatment plant

Introduction
The subject of this case study is an MBR
industrial waste water treatment plant
(IWWTP), located in Tilburg, in The
Netherlands. High quality waste water
recycling, including thermal energy recovery
in photo film and photo paper production were
the key words for this project. It was an
intention to demonstrate the combination of
innovative membrane bioreactor, thermal
energy recovery by means of a heat pump, and
heat exchangers, and a reverse osmosis for the
treatment of silver containing waste water. The
MBR technology, as well as the RO
technology are applying TORAY membranes
for the different water treatment tasks. The
treatment facility was built to: i, significantly
decrease in the withdrawal of the groundwater
and waste water produced, ii, decrease the
chemical usage, iii, reduction of the amount of
silver containing sludge production, iiii,
reduction of the effluent COD.
The Membrane Filtration
The IWWTP is equipped with TORAY`s
MEMBRAY flat sheet wastewater membranes.
The flat sheet membrane is using PVDF
(polyvinylidenedifluoride) for the functional
layer of the membrane and PET (polyester)
non-woven fabric as the base layer allows the
membrane to exhibit superior physical strength
and chemical stability.
Numerous small-diameter pores are distributed
evenly throughout the membrane surface with
a narrow diameter distribution. The nominal
pore size is 0.08 micron, which effectively
eliminate 0.1 micron+ particles to improve
effluent quality. The unique membrane
configuration having an immense number of
minuscule pores delivers stable high water

permeability with minimal clogging and

higher permeated water quality. The uniform
pore size distribution results consistently high
permeability with minimal pore clogging.

Figure 2: Pore distribution of TORAY

membranes
Design Basis and Assumptions
Due to discharge regulation, and due internal
energy efficiency reasons a complex system
had to be established, which is attractive from
both environmental and economical point of
view. So the proposed treatment of this special
wastewater consist of an MBR followed by the
reverse osmosis .

The MBR filtration capacity was designed for

a nominal flow of 35 m3/h (840 m3/d), and for
a maximum (peak) flow of 45 m3/h
(1080m3/d).
The General Conception
The raw waste water is entering to the
treatment facility from different source P1, P2
sources. The main process streams are
introduced by the Process Flow Diagram (PFD)
(see on Figure 3.) .The first step of the water
treatment is a pre-filtration, with 750 micron
opening. This unusual fine pre-filtration was
needed to avoid the fine particles from the raw
stream, like, plastics ties, small plastics, leaves,
small wood particles, which was well known
in the raw water. The biological treatment in
the MBR consists of a separate de-nitrification
and a separate nitrification basin .The
de-nitrification process removes NO2-N and
NO3-N nitrogen forms from the wastewater.
From the de-nitrification basin flows the
activated sludge by gravity to the aeration
basin. There is the aeration step takes place,
achieved by air-diffusers. The air is introduced
by one (1) or two (2) blowers. The blowers are
frequency controlled to obtain a stable oxygen
amount in the aeration basin. A third basin, the
membrane tank is being used for membrane
filtration. For the membrane filtration
TORAY`s microfiltration flat sheet membranes
are used, located in the membrane tanks. The
flat sheet membrane elements are kept clean
by continuous coarse bubble aeration and by
regular stop (relaxation) of the permeate
pumps, which are creating an under-pressure
in the membranes during filtration. The waste
activated sludge (WAS) is taken from the
membrane tanks (highest available MLSS
concentration), and pumped to the decanter,
where the silver containing sludge are
separated from the water. The reject water of
the decanter is returned to the de-nitrification
basin. The MBR system is containing twelve
(12) TMR140-200D type TORAY MBR
modules. Each module are build-up from
two-hundred (200) individual flat sheet
elements, which are connected to a main
permeate pipeline. The permeate water of the
MBR modules is pumped to the RO system.
Trough two heat exchangers the thermal
energy is withdrawn and re-used for heating up
part of the process water to the boilers.

Figure 3: The Process Flow Diagram of the treatment process

TORAY MEMBRANE EUROPE AG Europe AG, Basel Head Office

Grabenackerstrasse 8b
P.O. Box
CH-4142 Mnchenstein 1
Switzerland

Contact:
Tel.
Fax.
Email:
Web:

+41 61 415 87 10
+41 61 415 87 20
info@toray-membrane.com
www.toraywater.com

Figure 4: The installed TMR140-200D

membrane modules in the tank
The well effluent quality of permeate are
permitting the usage of the treated water in the
heat exchangers. The inlet design temperature
of the RO system is set between 20 and 25 C.
The permeate of the RO system will be mixed
with well water in a fixed ratio before sending
to the cooling towers (other part of the
industrial technology). The applied RO
membranes are TORAY SU-720 type
membranes with the normal operation range
between 11-14 bars. The RO is designed as a
three (3)-stage system to optimise the recovery
of the system to 85% in 4(5)-2-1 array, each
equipped with six membrane elements. The
RO permeate is stored into a buffer tank before
transport to the feed tank for the ion exchange
filters. The brine is disposed to the sewer and
contains only salts ( Figure 5.) .
Project Execution
The beginning and preparation of the project
was started at 2002. The project execution, the
civil works was finished in 2004, by an official
opening of the new installation in June, 2004.
The project preparation was a one (1) year
long period. During the preparation phase the
basic, and detailed design, as well as the

selection of the sub-contractors was done.

During the quarter long realisation phase all
required equipment was installed as was
designed, and as was planned before. The
realisation was done in Q1 2004. The new
installation was realised by subsiding of the
European Unions LIFE project. LIFE is the
EUs
financial
instrument
supporting
environmental and nature conservation
projects throughout the EU, as well as in some
candidate, acceding and neighbouring
countries. As expected by a difficult and new
project without references except the pilot test,
various experiences were noticed during the
start-u period. High fouling rate, foaming,
discharge of toxic materials, discharge of high
amount of soap like materials, damage of the
concrete basins, are a few about the technical
difficulties during the start-up. After facing
these operational problems the MBR plant was
stopped. From October 2005 until May 2006
several pilot test were executed to check the
effect of the several discharges on the biology
of the MBR and the membrane performance. It
was necessary because of the new composition
of the raw waste water streams due to new
production technologies in the coupled factory
(photo industry). Based on the pilot studies the
discharge of the toxic and foulant streams from
the factory were eliminated. From end of
December 2005 the MBR is in operation again.
In April, 2006 one of the industrial units of the
factory was stopped. In the consequence of
that the amount of discharged waste water has
been reduced by 50%. Also the composition of
the raw water was changed again generally. By
the collected operational experiences, the
IWWTP was successfully adjusted to the new
situation, and treatment condition.

Figure 6: The membrane tanks

TORAY MEMBRANE EUROPE AG Europe AG, Basel Head Office

Grabenackerstrasse 8b
P.O. Box
CH-4142 Mnchenstein 1
Switzerland

Figure 5: The RO-system

Operational Parameters
After the several changes and challenges
during the start-up period the plant runs stable
with an average permeability of 900 lmhbar
(year 2009). This constantly high permeability
generates results very low trans-membrane
pressure during filtration, and long chemical
cleaning frequency. The performance of the
biological nutrient removal is represented in
the Table 1.; it can be seen the carbon, and also
the nitrogen forms are removed with high
efficiency in the biology.
Table 1: Biological parameters (MBR)
Influent
Effluent
Parameter
parameter parameter
COD,
mg/l, O2
Ammonia,
mg/l, NH3
Nitrate,
mg/l, NO3
Nitrite,
mg/l, NO2

1730

30

63

6.6

5.1

0.5

0.015

The operational temperature range of the MBR

is 25-35C.The effluent water turbidity is less,
than 1 NTU.
Summary
Despite the serious troubles (general change in
raw water composition), the project proved
that application of above technologies can lead
to huge benefits for the environment as well as
for the economics. Because of increase of
energy and wastewater costs, investment of the
above technology will be earlier attractive in
the future. The project has shown that the feed
control is crucial to get an attractive and
reliable MBR system, further, that, the control
of internal streams is crucial in such case
(MBR, RO combined with energy recovery).
The combination of an innovative membrane
bioreactor, thermal energy recovery by means
of a heat pump and a reverse osmosis unit for
re-use of industrial wastewater is positive
demonstrated.

Contact:
Tel.
Fax.
Email:
Web:

+41 61 415 87 10
+41 61 415 87 20
info@toray-membrane.com
www.toraywater.com