Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 8 (2020) 103701

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Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering

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Sequencing batch reactor/nanofiltration hybrid method for water recovery T

from textile wastewater contained phthalocyanine dye and anionic
surfactant
Alireza Khosravia, Mohammad Karimia,*, Hadiyeh Ebrahimia, Narges Fallahb
a
Department of Textile Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Hefez Avenue, 15914, Tehran, Iran
b
Department of Chemical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Hefez Avenue, 15914, Tehran, Iran

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In this study, a Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) and a Nanofiltration (NF) process were utilized as a hybrid
Textile wastewater method for decolorization and purification of textile wastewater. Highly soluble Reactive Blue 21 (RB21) and
Biological treatment Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) were used as dye and anionic surfactant in the wastewater, respectively. The
Nanofiltration behavior of SBR was investigated during different periods of anaerobic-aerobic phases and pollutant reduction
Hybrid method
performance of each treatment section was analyzed. Experimental results of biological treatment showed that
High soluble dye
Anionic surfactant
the presence of SDS in wastewater could enhance dye and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal perfor-
mance. The SBR effluents with an optimum ratio of anaerobic-aerobic phases (8 h:13 h) were used as feed for
nanofiltration membrane. Although membrane procedure could not significantly separate the SDS present in
wastewater, yet it could remove 96% of dye and 97 % of COD. Also, real textile wastewater was treated by the
earlier mentioned hybrid method. Analyzing the effluent showed that dye, COD, and SDS removal were 98%,
98.5%, and 99%, respectively. During the treatment process, Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Total Organic
Carbon (TOC), turbidity and hardness were 20 ± 10 mg/L, 17 ± 2 mg/L, 1.31 ± 0.15 NTU and 21 ± 4 mg/L,
respectively.

1. Introduction treatment methods is the most important disadvantages of these treat-

ments for textile wastewater. Among the available techniques, biolo-
The consumption rate of natural resources is much higher than its gical methods are the best strategy for treatment of textile wastewater
replacement with the growth of population and industries. Textile in- [5–8]. Conventional biological treatment processes for textile waste-
dustry as one of the largest manufacturing industries and spotted as a water reduce the chemical oxygen demand (COD) significantly. How-
significant participant of the economy, produces significant amount of ever, these processes do not have an acceptable efficiency in high so-
wastewater which contains dangerous pollutants such as dyes, surfac- luble dyes removal as well as COD removal. In comparison to other
tants, etc. [1,2]. Different kinds of dyes and surfactants can be used in remediation methods, low operating cost and pollutants mineralization
these processes. Among them reactive dyes and anionic surfactants are is advantages of biological treatment [9–11]. Lee et al. [4] studied the
the most widely used classes in world market [3]. Reactive dyes are decolorization of reactive anthraquinone and phthalocyanine dyes
divided into three categories: azo, anthraquinone and phthalocyanine. using conventional activated sludge process. The best performance
Among these categories, phthalocyanine dyes have high solubility and a appeared under anoxic/anaerobic condition. The highest percentage of
strong chemical structure, which made challenges for researchers to removal for anthraquinone and phthalocyanine dyes was around 84%
biodegrade them [4]. and 49-66%, respectively. In order to improve the biological treatment
If appropriate treatment methods are used, the large amount of process, coupling this method with other systems as a hybrid method is
wastewater produced can be used as an adequate water source. There a typical way to achieve high performances. One of the popular hybrid
are several chemical, physical and biological treatment methods uti- approaches is biological/membrane treatment. In the last decade, due
lized for treating textile wastewater which have advantages and dis- to its performance to eliminate pollutants from wastewater and less
advantages. Creating xenobiotic components in physical and chemical residual wastes, this hybrid method turned into an operational and

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mkarimi@aut.ac.ir (M. Karimi).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2020.103701
Received 24 November 2019; Received in revised form 26 December 2019; Accepted 14 January 2020
Available online 16 January 2020
2213-3437/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A. Khosravi, et al. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 8 (2020) 103701

constructive one [7,12]. Membrane technology has emerged as a fea- Table 2

sible alternative to conventional treatment processes of dye wastewater. Characteristics of the all wastewaters.
It saves the operating costs and water consumptions by water recycling Parameter WW(D) WW(S) WW(DS) WW(R)
[7,10]. Zuriaga-Agosti et al. [10] studied the performance of sequen-
cing batch reactor (SBR) coupled with NF membrane for treating syn- pH 7-8 7-8 7-8 7-8
Conductivity (mS/cm) 0.7 ± 0.6 0.5 ± 0.3 1.1 ± 0.4 7.5 ± 0.5
thetic textile wastewater. They have concluded that biological treat-
COD (mg/L) 1047 ± 30 1300 ± 50 1400 ± 25 2750 ± 250
ment, which consists of aerobic and anaerobic conditions, together with BOD (mg/L) 50 ± 5 20 ± 5 80 ± 5 175 ± 25
NF process could be effective for water reclamation from textile was- Color (mg/L) 50 ± 1 – 50 ± 1 50 ± 5
tewater. Debik et al. [13] investigated the effect of biological pre- TOC (mg/L) 144 ± 30 100 ± 46 250 ± 41 1020 ± 130
treatment (SBR) for water recycling from textile wastewater by UF and TSS (mg/L) 15 ± 2 10 ± 1.5 20 ± 2 190 ± 10
Turbidity (NTU) 12 ± 1 1.7 ± 0.3 13 ± 1 70 ± 6
NF membranes. The biological pretreatment comprised anaerobic and
Hardness (mg/L) – – – 150 ± 10
aerobic phase which could contribute to the degradation of dye mole-
cules structure and reduction of COD concentration, respectively. This
pretreatment helped the membranes work more efficient and achieve a vinyl sulfone group without any further purification, and SDS, as a
effluent with high qualities. They showed that the UF membrane could common anionic surfactant, were used in this study.
reduce NF membrane fouling and increase permeate flux significantly.
Among the membrane techniques, Nanofiltration (NF) and reverse os-
mosis (RO) membranes are widely used as a supplementary treatment 2.2. Sequencing batch reactor (SBR)
for water reclamation with high qualities. NF has almost identical ef-
ficiency to that of RO. Nevertheless, NF has low operating costs and A 4 L Pyrex reactor with 0.18 m diameter, 0.26 m height and a re-
high flux permeate. The particular NF membrane separation me- movable cap was used as reactor. Working volume was 2 L, fill and
chanism, such as particle size rejection and electrostatic excretion, al- draw were carried out by a peristaltic pump, mixing (400 rpm) and
lows for its wide benefits in textile wastewater treatment [14]. Neoh temperature control operation (30 ± 1 °C) was performed by a heater
et al. [15] indicated that RO and NF, as supplementary treatments for stirrer (LMS-1003, Korea) and a 5 cm magnet. Air was supplied by a
membrane bioreactor (MBR) used for treatment of municipal waste- compressor (ACO-5504, China) connected to a diffuser. In this study,
water, have insignificant differences in effluent qualities. In most stu- activated sludge was collected from a municipal wastewater treatment
dies, it is demonstrated that using the biological treatment (containing plant in Tehran, Iran. Activated sludge was acclimated for 90 days with
anaerobic/aerobic phase) coupled with NF membrane may achieve an WW before it was seeded to SBR reactor to produce biomass with
effluent with sufficient quality [7,11,12,16]. concentration of 4 g/L. Hydraulic retention time (HRT), solids retention
There are already remarkable studies on azo dyes wastewater time (SRT), and reaction time were 72 h, 10 days, and 21 h, respec-
treatment, while the phthalocyanine dyes concern less because they are tively. SBR cycles are shown in Fig. 1. After each cycle, 1/3 of the su-
removed barely by microorganisms. The aim of this study is water re- pernatant was replaced with fresh WW [17]. Reaction time was divided
clamation from phthalocyanine dye wastewater contains surfactant by into anaerobic and aerobic phases; four different ratios of anaerobic and
a hybrid biological/NF treatment method. In biological reaction time, aerobic phases, ratio 1 (4 h:17 h), ratio 2 (8 h:13 h), ratio 3 (12 h:9 h),
various anaerobic-aerobic periods examine. The wastewater contains
reactive blue 21 (RB21), as a phthalocyanine dye, and sodium dodecyl
sulfate (SDS), as a commercial anionic surfactant. In addition, the in-
teractions between dye and surfactant have been studied in each part of
the treatment.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Wastewater characteristics

In this study, four kinds of wastewaters (WW) were treated. WW(D)

contained reactive blue 21 (RB21), kindly supplied by SunActive (Iran),
WW(S) contained sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), obtained from Merck
(Germany), WW(DS) contained RB21 and SDS (Table 1), and WW(R),
which was a real textile WW from a textile factory located in the textile
industrial district of Nazarabad, Iran, contained RB21 & SDS (Table 2).
RB21, as a commercial quality reactive phthalocyanine dye, which has

Table 1
Composition of synthetic textile wastewater (adapted from [17]).
Chemical WW(D) WW(S) WW(DS)

Glucose 1000 mg/L 1000 mg/L 1000 mg/L

K2HPO4 47.5 mg/L 47.5 mg/L 47.5 mg/L
Urea 40 mg/L 40 mg/L 40 mg/L
MgSO4 59.3 mg/L 59.3 mg/L 59.3 mg/L
MnSO4 5.7 mg/L 5.7 mg/L 5.7 mg/L
FeSO4 0.3 mg/L 0.3 mg/L 0.3 mg/L
CaCl2 5.7 mg/L 5.7 mg/L 5.7 mg/L
NaHCO3 100 mg/L 100 mg/L 100 mg/L
RB21 50 mg/L – 50 mg/L
SDS – 20 mg/L 20 mg/L
Fig. 1. SBR cycle.

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A. Khosravi, et al. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 8 (2020) 103701

Fig. 2. Schematic of the hybrid treatment method.

and ratio 4 (16 h:5 h) were studied [18]. After finding the optimized separating the microorganisms from the solution. The prepared samples
ratio in SBR, the effluent of SBR was used as NF feed (Fig. 2). were analyzed with FTIR spectrometer (Thermo-Nicolet Nexus 670,
USA) at 400-4000 cm−1 by resolution of 4 cm-1.
2.3. Nanofiltration plant
2.6. Gas chromatography coupled to mass spectroscopy (GC–MS)
The Nanofiltration laboratory plant was equipped with a stirred cell
module. The membrane used was NF membrane NP010 from Microdyn Intermediate products of RB21 biodegradation were analyzed by
Nadir whose main characteristics are presented in Table 3. GC–MS, using a GC/MSD Agilent 890A gas chromatograph coupled to a
In this study, transmembrane pressure of 10 bar and temperature of mass spectrometer (5975C VL MSD, USA), equipped with a triple-axis
25 °C were set as operating conditions. detector and a capillary Agilent column (HP-5MS, USA) with 5 %
phenyl methyl siloxane.
2.4. Analytical methods
3. Results and discussions
After SBR treatment, solid and liquid phases were separated from
the supernatant by centrifugation (Hettich D-78532 Tuttlingen;
3.1. Performance of SBRs
10,000 rpm; 20 min, Germany). Then, the samples were collected for
dye, COD, and surfactant removal tests. The RB21 concentrations were
The COD and dye removal performances during the operation per-
determined by UV–vis spectrophotometry (Jenway 6105
iods of the reactor with WW(D) are presented in Fig. 3. Steady-state
Spectrophotometer, UK) at 624 nm, corresponding to the maximal ab-
condition was achieved after 10 days following initial fluctuations. As
sorbance of dye (R2 = 0.999). The SDS concentrations of samples were
shown in Fig. 3, the COD removal has slight changes between ratios 1
determined by means of photometric titration with methylene blue dye
and 2, while by decreasing the aeration time at ratios 3 and 4, the COD
(R2 = 0.998) [19]. After each cycle, pH of the reactor was controlled
removal was declined from 98% to 43% and 16%, respectively. This
and kept constant (7–8). Mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS), mixed
reveals the direct effect of aeration time on the amount of COD re-
liquor volatile suspended solids (MLVSS), COD concentrations, 5 days
moval. The dye removal was enhanced from ratio 1–4, as the dye re-
incubation biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), Sludge Volume Index
moval was 80% at ratio 4. Furthermore, by diminishing the aeration
(SVI), total dissolved organic carbon (TOC), hardness, and total sus-
time, MLSS and MLVSS were typically reduced. At steady-state, MLSS
pended solids (TSS) were measured according to Standard Methods of
and MLVSS were respectively 3600 ± 151 mg/L and 3032 ± 140 mg/
American public health associated (APHA) [20]. According to the
L at ratio 1, 3000 ± 160 mg/L and 2442 ± 185 mg/L at ratio 2,
procedure outlined in Helke studies, soluble microbial products (SMP)
2100 ± 172 mg/L and 1810 ± 194 mg/L at ratio 3, and
was measured [21]. Turbidity of WW(S) was determined by a turbidity
1800 ± 233 mg/L and 1217 ± 205 mg/L at ratio 4. Sahinkaya et al.
meter (Hach, USA).
[3] reported that increase in duration of anaerobic phase could reduce
the COD removal efficiency. Fu et al. [17] studied phthalocyanine dye
2.5. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) measurement removal by conventional activated sludge treatment in aerobic and
anaerobic conditions. In aerobic condition, dye removal of 80 % was
To prepare a proper FTIR sample, 100 ml of supernatant was ex- achieved but during anaerobic phase, dye removal was 20 % by in-
tracted from the reactor. Then centrifuging the supernatant and creasing glucose concentration. They concluded that the difference in
dye removal between aerobic and anaerobic conditions was due to
Table 3
different growth rates of activated sludge during aerobic and anaerobic
Characteristics of the NF NP010 membrane.
phases. With higher growth rates during aerobic phase, dye absorption
Manufacturer Microdyn Nadir by activated sludge would increase. Lee et al. [4] observed that
phthalocyanine dye removal during anaerobic and aerobic conditions
Type Flat sheet membrane
Material Polyethersulfone (PES) did not reach more than 49–66 % because of high solubility and strong
Thickness 210-250 μm structure of dye.
Molecular weight cut-off 1000-1200 Da The COD, dye, and surfactant removal performances of SBR treating
Na2SO4 rejection 35 – 75% WW(DS) are illustrated in Fig. 4. The average dye removal at ratios 1 and
Maximum operating pressure 40 bars (580 psi)
2 were obtained as 22% and 52%, respectively. By decreasing the
Maximum operating temperature 50 °C (122 °F)
pH range 0.0–14.0 aeration time at ratio 4, the dye removal efficiency was raised to 95%,
although in ratio 3 the dye removal did not enhance significantly

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A. Khosravi, et al. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 8 (2020) 103701

Fig. 3. The COD and Dye removal performances of WW(D).

(67%). These removal efficiencies were more than that of the com- aeration time hydrocarbon tail of SDS did not completely degrade
parable ratios for WW(D). This is due to the effect of SDS that enhances during aeration time. In their investigations, Zhang et al. [23] observed
stability of intermediate products during anaerobic phase, causing the that the SDS concentration significantly reduced under aeration con-
intermediate products not to be converted to their previous complex dition after 24 h because the hydrocarbon tail was broken down by
form, thus, becoming stable with the beginning of aeration time. As a microorganisms. MLSS and MLVSS for WW(DS) were respectively
result, pollutants with simpler structures exist, and oxidation can occur 3159 ± 215 mg/L and 2579 ± 189 mg/L at ratio 1, 2970 ± 195 mg/
properly in aeration phase. In the study of Kireyko et al. [22], it was L and 2398 ± 120 mg/L at ratio 2, 1350 ± 206 mg/L and
observed that 0.1–100 mM of SDS could affect the dye removal by 986 ± 140 mg/L at ratio 3, and 800 ± 137 mg/L and 463 ± 142 mg/
stabilizing intermediates. Significant dye removal efficiency at ratio 4 L at ratio 4.
in the present study led to improved COD removal efficiency (38%), According to the results, the SBR could not provide a significant
higher than that obtained for treated WW(D) (16%) and WW(S) (20%) at performance to sufficiently remove COD and surfactant in the long-
the same ratio. Comparing the surfactant removal of WW(DS) with duration anaerobic phases (ratios 3 and 4). Besides, the nanofiltration
WW(S), no significant changes (< 1%) were observed, suggesting that stage could not be efficient in decreasing the amount of COD and sur-
the presence of dye had insignificant effect on SDS removal efficiency. factant remained after biological treatment. Therefore, ratio 2 (8 h
Removal of SDS at ratios 1 and 2 was 99%, but at ratios 3 and 4, SDS anaerobic-13 h aerobic) was selected as the SBR reaction time for
removal diminished to 95% and 90% respectively, because of short treating the wastewater containing RB21 and SDS. The remained dye in

Fig. 4. Performance of SBR for WW(DS).

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A. Khosravi, et al. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 8 (2020) 103701

Fig. 5. Color scan from the dye solution SBR feed, after finishing the anaerobic
phase and the aerobic phase.
Fig. 6. The FTIR spectra of Dye powder and anaerobic effluent in the range of
400−4000 cm−1.
the effluent of SBR was separated by nanofiltration stage.
fungi) could be degraded to simple intermediates such as phthalimide,
3.2. Degradation mechanism etc.
Fig. 8 presents the degradation kinetic of RB21. To achieve the
During the SBR treatment, the removal mechanisms of RB21 and degradation kinetic, the absorbance from the FTIR spectra of C]N and
SDS were investigated. Lack of azo bonds in RB21 chromophore C]O at 1600 cm−1 and 1726 cm−1, respectively, were studied through
structure increased its resistance against bio-degradation. RB21 had a the experiment. As expected, after reaching the equilibrium condition,
slight chance to be absorbed by microorganisms because of its high the absorbance rate was gradually decreased. The equilibrium condi-
solubility and molecular structure size [24]. SDS linear structure con- tion was achieved after 12 days of reaction between dye and micro-
taining 12-carbon chain caused its easy elimination in the aerobic phase organisms, that demonstrating the influence of RB21 chromophore
[25]. structure resistance.

3.2.1. RB21 degradation mechanism

3.2.2. SDS degradation
According to the SBR results, aerobic phase could not remove RB21
According to the results obtained from the SBRs, most of the SDS
significantly and most of dye removal occurred in the anaerobic phase.
was removed in the aerobic phase. When the duration of anaerobic
Due to the RB21 chromophore, CeN and C]N bonds were more prone
phase increased, microorganisms could not remove SDS significantly,
to break up in the presence of microorganisms [25]. In a shorter
implying that the anaerobic phase is not able to degrade the structure of
anaerobic phase, the C]N bond was converted to CeN and the re-
SDS as well as the aerobic conditions. The intermediates produced in
sonance structure disappeared. With the beginning of the aerobic
this phase were recovered by starting the aerobic phase in the presence
phase, the C]N bond was formed again, the resonance feature returned
of oxygen. Scott et al. [28] demonstrated that the surfactant’s hydro-
and the color of RB21 was recovered (Fig. 5).
carbon tail was oxidized in aerobic phase and vanished in the culture.
When the anaerobic phase duration increased, microorganisms had
But in the anaerobic phase, hydrophilic part was reduced by micro-
time to break the CeN bonds in the main structure and convert RB21
organisms and different intermediates were produced.
chromophore to simpler intermediates while they could not rebind the
chromophore’s main structure in the presence of oxygen at the aerobic
phase. The SBR effluent after anaerobic phase was analyzed by FTIR to 3.3. Nanofiltration performance
find the degradation mechanism. FTIR results of anaerobic phase are
illustrated in Fig. 6. The characteristic absorption bands of RB21 in- Effluents of SBRs were used as feed for nanofiltration stage. It
cluded 900−1000 cm−1 (CeN stretching, between isoindoline groups should be noted that the effluent of treated WW(S) in SBR was not used
and in amide bands), 1600−1630 cm−1 (C]N stretching, between in this stage because of extraordinary SBR efficiency for removing COD
isoindolines), and 1450-1500 cm−1 (C]C stretching in aromatic rings). and surfactant from WW. After filtration, the permeates of two WWs
After the anaerobic phase, it was observed that the characteristic ab- (permeate(D) = effluent of treated WW(D) permeate, permeate (DS) =
sorption bands of RB21 were changed. According to the FTIR spectra of effluent of treated WW(DS) permeate), were properly analyzed. COD and
anaerobic effluent, the CeN bonds between isoindoline groups in 900- dye removal efficiency significantly increased. The COD and dye re-
1000 cm−1 were degraded and the shoulder in 1000 cm−1 referred to moval for permeate (DS) were 97% and 96%, respectively, while they
CeN in amide groups. In effluent spectra, the C]N stretching bands were both 98% for permeate(D). The difference between the properties
were transformed to C]O stretching bands in amide group structure in of two permeates was due to the presence of SDS remained in the ef-
the range of 1650- 1745 cm−1. The peak at 1440 cm−1 indicated the fluent of treated WW(DS). The remaining SDS was arranged in the pores
aromatic rings. Considering FTIR results, one of the most significant and on the surface of the PES membrane, acting as a hydrophilic bridge
intermediates produced in the anaerobic phase could be phthalimide. to pass the water with highly soluble dye. The dye molecules passed
For precise vision, the produced intermediates structure identified by through the membrane along with water because the SDS concentration
GCeMS. Compounds identified by GC–MS (Fig. 7) confirmed the was not sufficient to form a polar layer, resulting a decrease in mem-
phthalimide presence in the end of the anaerobic time [26]. Conneely brane dye rejection. This phenomenon demonstrated that the dye
et al. [27] studied the phthalocyanine dyes degradation pathway by concentration of permeate(DS) is slightly higher than that of
white-rot fungi. Their investigations have shown that the phthalocya- permeate(D). The minor difference in dye removal represents a possible
nine dye in the presence of Phanerochaete chrysosporium (white-rot reason to accept different COD removal methods for permeates.

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A. Khosravi, et al. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 8 (2020) 103701

Fig. 7. Intermediates produced during RB21 degradation by activated sludge as analyzed by GC/MS.

Fig. 8. The degradation kinetic of RB21. Fig. 9. Permeate flux for NF of WWs at 10 bars.

Childress et al. [29] observed that SDS at a significant concentration

(1 mM) could form a polar layer on the NF membrane surface and
contribute to nanofiltration performance including rejection, flux, etc.
Ahmad et al. [30] investigated the effect of surfactant on dye removal
in nanofiltration treatment. They observed that increasing the surfac-
tant concentration could result in dye rejection enhancement, while the
permeate flux declined. In the study of Cornelis et al. [31], the flux
behavior and rejection in the presence of surfactant were discussed for
NF membranes with different molecular weights cut off (MWCO). They
concluded that surfactant with low concentration could penetrate into
pores and increase flux for hydrophobic NF membranes with high
MWCO, although rejection could be reduced.
Fouling of two NF membranes were investigated and it was ob-
served that fouling of the NF membrane which was used for treating the
effluent containing SDS was higher (Fig. 9). For this purpose, two ef-
fluents of SBRs, used as nanofiltration feed, were analyzed. SVI and
SMP of each SBR were determined during the steady state. It has been
shown in Fig. 10 that SVI of SBR(D) was more than that of SBR(DS)
Fig. 10. SVI of SBRs at steady state.
(SBR(D) treated WW(D), SBR(DS) treated WW(DS)). SMP of SBR(D) and
SBR(DS) were 37.3 ± 2.7 mg/L and 79.1 ± 3.4 mg/L, respectively.
Fig. 11 has illustrated the share of carbohydrate and protein produced were adsorbed on the sludge surface. The SDS broke-up the sludge
by microorganisms, in SMP. According to the results, presence of SDS in matrix and increased the solubility of protein and carbohydrate in the
WW(DS) lead to the differences between SBR(D) and SBR(DS). Jiang et al. aqua phase. Luo et al. [33] conducted an investigation which showed
[32] observed that SDS increased the protein and carbohydrate content that SMP was raised by increasing SDS concentration. Besides, Chen
in the effluent. This phenomenon occurred due to the inherent feature et al. [34] observed that increase in SDS concentration could help the
of SDS, leading to solubilization of the protein and carbohydrate, which activated sludge sedimentation. Liwarska et al. [35] showed that SDS

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A. Khosravi, et al. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 8 (2020) 103701

Fig. 11. The share of protein and carbohydrate in SMP for each SBR.
As shown in Fig. 9, fouling of NF membrane (used for filtering the effluent Fig. 13. The share of each treatment method to eliminate pollutants in-
containing SDS) was lower because proteins and carbohydrates tend to be so- dividually.
lubilized in the SDS present in aqueous media.

affected the morphology of activated sludge flocs and decreased density

even at low concentrations.

3.4. Case study

Considering the achieved operational conditions, a real textile WW

(WW(R)) was analyzed and results were investigated. After biological
treatment, COD, dye, and surfactant removal were obtained and illu-
strated in Fig. 12. The COD, dye, and surfactant removal were 94%,
52%, and 98%, respectively. MLSS and MLVSS of activated sludge in
steady state phase were obtained as 2430 ± 173 mg/L and
1863 ± 218 mg/L, respectively. Also, the WW was treated by NF
membrane directly without any pretreatment. Analysis of permeate
demonstrated that COD, dye, and surfactant removal were 71%, 86%
and 30%, respectively. Also, the SMP of the effluent was
94.9 ± 2.7 mg/L. During 1 h operation, permeate flux was obtained as
22.6 L/m2h. Share of each treatment performance to eliminate pollu-
tants from real WW has been individually shown in Fig.13.
After biological treatment, the effluent of SBR was used as mem-
brane feed. The COD, dye, and surfactant removal were 85%, 96%, and
25%, respectively (Fig. 14). Besides, permeate flux of NF membrane
was 15.4 L/m2h for 1 h. Characteristics of the treated WW by the hybrid
method have also been demonstrated in Table 4.
Biological treatment (anaerobic: aerobic) is a suitable and
Fig. 14. The efficiency of each treatment in the hybrid process (a) and in-
dividually (b) to eliminate RB21.

Table 4
Characteristics of the treated real textile WW by the hybrid method.
Parameter Value Removal Water Water quality
efficiency (%) quality for for washing
dyeing [36] [36]

pH 7-8 – 6.5-8.0 6.5-8

Conductivity 2.1 ± 0.5 67 800-2200 –
(mS/cm)
COD (mg/L) ≤ 50 98 0-160 500-200
BOD (mg/L) ≤ 30 85 0-20 –
Color (mg/L) ≤1 98 – Non-Visible
TOC (mg/L) 17 ± 2 98 – –
TSS (mg/L) 18 ± 3 91 0-50 –
Turbidity (NTU) 1.31 ± 0.15 98 1 –
Hardness (mg/L) 21 ± 4 86 0-100 100

Fig. 12. Performance of SBR for treating the real WW.

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A. Khosravi, et al. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 8 (2020) 103701

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