MBR Vs. MBBR
For domestic, institutional and industrial applications, a large quantity of water is required.
Considering the severity of water scarcity throughout the world, the entire approach towards water consumption is changing rapidly. This also includes the conservation and reuse of wastewater. Currently, there are various wastewater treatment technologies available all over the world. Keeping pace with the time, scientists are working to find effective treatment processes that produce higher affluent results for water sustainability.
The most commonly used are MBBR and MBR
Let’s learn about the above technologies and see which one is more effective?
MBR process, also known as Membrane Bio-Reactor, is a micro and ultrafiltration process that combines the filtration and the activated sludge process for wastewater treatment and reuse.
The MBR process is designed based on filtration technology where UF/MF membranes are submerged in the activated sludge basin. These filtration membranes are available in Hollow Fiber & Flat sheet type modules to match one’s specific requirement. The Hollow Fiber consists of a bundle of straw like membranes while Flat sheet are a set of flat membrane elements.
The microorganisms and the organic compounds or solid matter present in the sewage are getting digested under oxygen consumption. As the process continues, all the organic matter is retained by the membrane in the basin, while higher MLSS (Mixed liquor suspended solids) concentration is achieved, contributing to higher filtration efficiency of MBR and lowering the space requirement.
The microscopic pores present on the membrane surface allow only the clear water molecules to pass through, while the impurities remain sticking to the outer surface. MBR is capable of 95% removal of BOD in its finest capacity.
MBR process is very user friendly and can be controlled and monitored by imemflo controller known as “imemtroll”, from remote places.
Whereas MBBR, known as Moving Bed Bio Reactor, is a biological process based on principle of Attached Bio Growth on moving plastic media.
MBBR Media is a small cylindrical shape of Polyethylene carrier which is added in aerated or non-aerated basin to support biofilm growth. Bacteria grows primarily on protected surface on the inner & outer side of the carriers. Air agitators are used to continuously circulate media to support and activate digestion process.
Combined wastewater and digested sludge further pass-through the secondary settling tank where Clarified water gets separated from digested sludge and further subjected to tertiary treatment to achieve desired treated water quality.
Even though both above technologies are biological processes, MBR has an edge over MBBR in terms of space requirement, efficiency, loading time, and in delivering faster results. The MBR process is capable of giving results in 1-2 days. On the other hand, MBBR debugging period is more than 3 weeks.
MBR delivers very high-quality treated effluent which makes treated water suitable for reuse in various applications. In short, MBR is a winner among all the technologies, when it comes to Treated water quality, reusing of wastewater and foot print.
