The Effect of Acidification on Membrane Distillation Process for Strong Nitrogenous Wastewater

Abstract

A direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) was applied to treat strong nitrogenous wastewater of anaerobic digestion supernatant (ADS) and human urine (HU). The ammonia transfer was evaluated in terms of specific ammonia transfer (SAT) value, which is the ratio of total ammoniacal nitrogen divided by the amount of water transferred. The acidification resulted in low SAT values and high quality of produced water. The ammonia transfer control in the acidic condition was stronger for HU than ADS due to higher alkalinity (pH 8.8) and ammonia concentration (5700 mg-N/L) of HU. Acidified HU at pH 4 exhibited a SAT value of 1.64 × 10-5, which was significantly smaller than the SAT value of 3.00 × 10-3 for the original HU. The low pH enhanced the water flux for ADS, but HU showed a steep decrease in water flux due to enhanced fouling. It was considered that the fouling intensity in acidic conditions depends on the characteristics of the wastewater source. The major foulants on the MD membrane were NaCl, CaCO3 and CuSO4 as recognized by the SEM-EDS. Acidified ADS and HU at pH 4 showed relatively high N content of 8.18% and 28.03%, respectively, as organic fouling.