To lower the costs of wastewater treatment, the submerged hollow fiber ultrafiltration membrane was employed to reuse the filter backwash water and settling tank sludge water. Experimental study indicates that the submerged hollow fiber ultrafiltration membrane can condense the concentration of sludge from 0.1%-0.3% to 2.5%. At 20 ℃, the system can operate continuously for 80 days with daily online backwashing with chemical additions only once, and the membrane flux can be recovered up to 97% by using NaClO and NaOH as chemical additions. The results show that the membrane flux is mainly affected by temperature,and has a positive linear relation to temperature with a slope of 0.368. After treated by submerged hollow fiber ultrafiltration membrane,the effluent can reach the National Standard for Drinking Water(GB5749-85), especially for the sludge water from sedimentation tanks and the backwashing water from filters in water supply plants.
The effectiveness of enhancing treatment of water with low turbidity through combined effects of permanganate oxidation, PAM aiding coagulation and sludge recycling was investigated through continuous bench scale studies. In comparing with ferric chloride coagulation, only recycling sedimentation sludge was ineffective in enhancing treatment of water with low turbidity. PAM with recycled sludge showed positive effects, and the additional permanganate dosing exhibited the best potential of favoring coagulation, which leaded to much lower effluent turbidity and CODMn. Additionally, it was observed that the optimal permanganate dosage was 0.4 mg/L and the higher permanganate dosage exhibited inhibiting effects for pollutants removal. SEM analysis indicated that the flocs were loosely formed and the particle diameter was critically low for ferric chloride coagulation process. Comparatively, the addition of PAM and permanganate with recycled sludge facilitated the aggregation of tinny particles onto compact PAM polymer chains, therefore contributing to the formation of compact flocs with high particle diameter. The combined employment of recycled sludge, PAM and permanganate showed the best potential of favoring coagulation, mainly through synergistic effects between seeding, polymer bridging and increasing effective collision in mechanism. Additionally, the variation of Fe and Mn concentration after recycling and sedimentating units was studied for the processes, and the main species was also investigated for elements Fe and Mn. Sludge recycling and permanganate addition did not increase Fe and Mn concentration in the sedimented water.
