Supplementary Material
MBBR followed by microfiltration and reverse osmosis as a compact alternative for
advanced treatment of a pesticide-producing industry wastewater towards reuse
S. M. S. Cao1, M. Dezotti1, J. P. Bassin1*
1
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - COPPE - Chemical Engineering Program, Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Chemical Engineering Program/COPPE, Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro, P.O. Box 68502, 21941-972, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Tel. +55
21 25628347, Fax +55 21 25628300, Email address: [email protected]
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Table S1: Main components of the wastewater used as feed for the two-stage MBBR process.
Component
Unit
Range of concentration
Chemical oxygen demand (COD)
mg/L
240 – 728
Dissolved organic carbon (DOC)
mg/L
83 – 252
Total nitrogen (TN)
mg/L
10 – 247
Ammonium (NH4+)
mg N/L
13 – 46
Nitrite (NO2-)
mg N/L
0 - 35
Nitrate (NO3-)
mg N/L
0.3 - 93
Total suspended solids (TSS)
mg/L
193 – 875
Volatile suspended solids (VSS)
mg/L
55 – 751
pH
-
7.6 – 9.2
Turbidity
NTU
9.2 – 25.3
Chloride (Cl-)
mg/L
3729 – 6593
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Figure S1: Flowchart of the pre-anoxic moving-bed bioreactor system. The recycle ratio was
gradually increased from 2 to 4 over the three experimental conditions to maximize total nitrogen
removal.
Figure S2: Schematic representation of the bench-scale microfiltration system employed as posttreatment of the MBBR effluent. FI: Flow Indicator; PI: Pressure Indicator.
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Figure S3: Schematic representation of the bench scale reverse osmosis (RO) treatment unit. (1)
Feed tank; (2) Pressure accumulator; (3) Permeation cell; (4) Manometer; (5) Pressure control
valve; (6) Thermometer, (7) Flowmeter.
Table S2: Working conditions of the membrane FILMTEC BW30-2540 used in reverse osmosis
(RO) experiments. Information was provided by the supplier (Dow Chemical Company).
Parameters
Limit
Maximum operating temperature (Tmax)
45 º C
Maximum operating pressure (Pmax)
4.1 MPa (41 bar)
pH
2 – 11
Maximum SDI15
5
Free chlorine tolerance
< 0.1 mg/L
Salt rejection
99.5%
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Figure S4: Permeate flux observed in the beginning (t = 0) and after 25 h of the RO permeation
tests carrier out at different working pressures. The reduction in the permeate flux observed at
different pressures is indicated by arrows.
(a)
(b)
(d)
(e)
(c)
Figure S5: Reverse osmosis (RO) membrane before the permeation assay (a); Membrane after
the 1.5 MPa (b), 2.0 MPa (c), 2.5 MPa (d), and 3.0 MPa (e) experiments.
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