Evaluation of the fouling potential of sludge in a membrane bioreactor integrated with microbial fuel cell.

This study focused on the fouling characteristics evaluation of the sludge in a membrane bioreactor integrated with microbial fuel cell (MFC-MBR) to reveal the mechanisms of membrane fouling mitigation. The filtration of soluble microbial products (SMPs) in MFC-MBR showed lower flux decline rate than those in the control system (C-MBR). Based on the extended Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek analysis, decreases in free energies of adhesion between the SMPs and clean membrane or SMP-fouled membrane were observed in MFC-MBR. When approaching the clean membrane or SMP-fouled membrane, the SMPs in MFC-MBR had to overcome a higher energy barrier compared to those in C-MBR, indicating the inhibition of adsorption of SMPs on the membrane surface in MFC-MBR. Additionally, sludge flocs in MFC-MBR exhibited lower hydrophobicity and were less negative surface charged in comparison to those in the C-MBR. In MFC-MBR, the sludge flocs approaching the clean membrane, SMP-fouled membrane and cake layer all experienced higher energy barriers and lower secondary energy minimums compared to those in C-MBR, exhibiting the lower potential of cake layer formation. These results confirmed that decreases of the fouling potentials of SMPs and sludge flocs were essential for the membrane fouling mitigation in the MFC-MBR.