Monitoring and analysis of the energy cost of an MBR

Certain regions in the south of Europe are suffering an acute lack of water. One way to solve this hydric deficit is to use membrane bioreactors (MBR) to reuse the treated wastewater in tasks where drinking water is not required, e.g. irrigation. The aim of this research was to monitor physical–chemical (COD, BOD, and TN) and microbiological (EF, TC, and FC) parameters, as well as the energy costs in a Kubota MBR pilot plant located in Southeast Spain for one year, as well as to check the feasibility of the MBR process. The system showed a high robustness providing a fairly constant effluent with a large reduction of the entry pollutants and thus providing a highly reliable operation. High TSS, COD, BOD, NH+4 and TN removal efficiencies up to 97, 94, 95, 98 and 81% respectively where achieved. The removal of the different microbials was quite high, with values in the permeate below 10 colony forming units (CFUs) most of the time. Some problems like blackouts, high temperatures and cleaning processes altered the normal operation lowering the retention of the different compounds and microorganisms. Regarding the energy consumption, two fluxes, 19 and 25 LMH were tested. Assuming a price for the electric supply of 0.0806 €/kW, the prices of the treated water for the two fluxes were 0.49 and 0.39 €/m3 and the total consumptions were 6.06 and 4.88 kWh/m3 for 19 and 25 LMH respectively. Aeration comprised almost 50% of the total energy requirements.