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Effect of powdered activated carbon dosage on sludge properties and

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DOI: 10.1080/09593330.2017.1417493

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ISSN: 0959-3330 (Print) 1479-487X (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tent20

Effect of powdered activated carbon dosage on

sludge properties and membrane bioreactor
performance in a hybrid MBR-PAC system

Shi Zhang, Xingtao Zuo, Juan Xiong, Cong Ma & Bo Hu

To cite this article: Shi Zhang, Xingtao Zuo, Juan Xiong, Cong Ma & Bo Hu (2019) Effect
of powdered activated carbon dosage on sludge properties and membrane bioreactor
performance in a hybrid MBR-PAC system, Environmental Technology, 40:9, 1156-1165, DOI:
10.1080/09593330.2017.1417493

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ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY
2019, VOL. 40, NO. 9, 1156–1165
https://doi.org/10.1080/09593330.2017.1417493

Effect of powdered activated carbon dosage on sludge properties and membrane

bioreactor performance in a hybrid MBR-PAC system
Shi Zhanga, Xingtao Zuoa, Juan Xiongb, Cong Mac and Bo Hua
a
College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China; bCollege of Science, Huazhong
Agricultural University, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China; cDepartment of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Connecticut,
Storrs, CT, USA

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

An improved insight into the effect of powdered activated carbon (PAC) on membrane fouling is Received 6 September 2017
crucial to the MBR performance. Sludge key property, soluble microbial products (SMP) and Accepted 10 December 2017
transmembrane pressure (TMP) were monitored. The membrane fouling rate in the MBRs was
KEYWORDS
also analyzed based on TMP profile and resistance-in-series model. PAC reduced the membrane Activated sludge; MBR; PAC;
filtration resistance and significantly decreased the fouling rate. The sludge filterability was SMP; membrane fouling
improved by extending the filtration time by almost twofold. PAC affected the SMP release and
protein/polysaccharide (carbohydrate) was in a lower ratio. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR)
analysis indicated that PAC decreased the impact of organic carbon, and reduced the proteins’
and polysaccharides’ absorption and deposition on the membrane surface and in the pores. The
degree of reversible and irreversible fouling was related to the PAC content added into the
MBRs. At the optimum dosage of 2 g/L, the results signified the PAC potential as a mitigation
strategy of membrane fouling.

1. Introduction
MBR technology has been widely used for the treatment
and reclamation of both industrial and municipal waste-
waters. However, membrane fouling is still the main
drawback impeding the application of MBR technology.
Membrane fouling is mainly affected by membrane
properties, operating conditions and solution character-
istics. The suspended solids and active microorganisms
in MBR make membrane fouling an inevitable phenom-
enon [1], and it will increase the membrane cleaning fre-
quency and reduce the membrane lifespan [2]. Many
studies have tried to mitigate membrane fouling by
introducing fouling reducers into the MBR system, such
as organic polymer [3] and inorganic materials (alum
chloride, zeolite, etc.) [4–6]. However, these methods
failed due to relatively high operating costs.
Powdered activated carbon (PAC) added into MBR is a
more effective and economical technique to mitigate
membrane fouling [7–10]. This process can reduce the
operation and maintenance costs of membrane cleaning
and membrane replacement by about 25% [11]. Several
mechanisms were employed to explain this positive
effect [12–14]: (1) enhanced scouring of the membrane
surface to avoid particle deposition; (2) adsorption of
foulants such as soluble extracellular polymeric sub-
stances (EPS) or soluble microbial products (SMP) by
PAC; (3) the formation of a more rigid and less compres-
sible cake or gel layer; (4) an improved flocculation. To
further improve this process, a better understanding of
the fouling differences in MBR with and without PAC is
needed [14].
The 0.3% PAC in MBR reduced trihalo-methane (THM)
precursors by over 98% [15]. PAC was effective in redu-
cing the permeation flux loss at a lower dosage of 2–
5 mg/L [16] and 1.67 g/L, but increased the membrane
flux at 3.4 g/L PAC [17]. A low PAC dosage of 0.5 g/L com-
bined with a relatively long SRT (50 days) extended the
filtration period without significant fouling at high flux
(72 L/(m2·h) for 18 h and 50 L/(m2·h) for 180 h), and the
critical flux increased by 10% [13]. Different optimal
dosages of PAC in MBR were obtained for the treatment
of different feed or wastewater. A 2 g/L PAC performed
as the best organic matter and for ammonia removal
of the micro-polluted surface water [18], 4 g/L for less
dosage cost [10] and 5 g/L for higher pollutants
removal efficiencies and stability against shock loading
[19]. Even at a higher PAC dosage of 40–50 g/L, the
membrane fouling frequency was lower [20].

CONTACT Xingtao Zuo xingtaozuo@aliyun.com College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, People’s Republic of
China; Juan Xiong xiong@mail.hzau.edu.cn College of Science, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/09593330.2017.1417493
© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

SMP and EPS are composed of a variety of organic
compounds released from microorganisms due to their
metabolic activity [21], which are considered to be
major foulants in MBRs [22]. However, limited research
has reported the effect of different PAC dosages on
SMP. Zhao and Gu [23] found that PAC could effectively
reduce the EPS content and significantly decrease the
irreversible membrane fouling when PAC was 0.75 g/L,
but the effect was dramatically reduced at a higher con-
centration of 1.5 g/L. In a similar study, 2 g/L of PAC
addition had little effect on EPS concentration, but the
proteins/carbohydrates ratio in SMPs was high and
Sludge Volume Index (SVI) decreased, which improved
sludge dewaterability [24].
The objective of this study was to provide additional
insight into the effects of PAC addition on membrane
fouling mitigation. The dynamics characteristics of acti-
vated sludge were simultaneously monitored in four par-
allel lab-scale MBRs during the continuous operation
period (157 days) without sludge discharge. Specifically,
SMP variation caused by different PAC concentrations in
MBRs was investigated. The foulant extracted from the
fouled membranes in the cleaning procedure at the
end of the membrane operation cycle was characterized
to confirm the effects of PAC on the foulants. This knowl-
edge can be used to fine-tune the PAC dosage and to
assess the possibility of applying a fouling reducer.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Experimental set-up and operation
Four identical lab-scale MBRs with a volume of 22 L were
continuously operated in parallel and fed with synthetic
wastewater for 157 days. The composition of the synthetic
wastewater is given as follows: glucose 344 mg/L, urea
33 mg/L, (NH4)2SO4 120 mg/L, KH2PO4 15 mg/L, K2HPO4
20 mg/L, MgSO4·7H2O 24.4 mg/L, CaCl2·2H2O 12 mg/L,
FeCl3·7H2O 1.5 mg/L, ZnSO4·7H2O 0.15 mg/L, CuSO4·5H2-
O 0.05 mg/L, Pb(NO3)2 0.26 mg/L, and adding NaHCO3
to adjust the pH value. COD was 398 mg/L on average
but fluctuated between 320 and 480 mg/L. NH+ 4 −N
and TN concentrations were 38.6 ± 4.9 mg/L and 63.0 ±
7.0 mg/L, respectively. The inoculated activated sludge
was obtained from the local municipal wastewater treat-
ment plant.
Each MBR contained a submerged PVDF hollow fiber
membrane module with a nominal pore size of 0.2 μm
and an effective filtration area of 0.3 m2 (MOF-1B-W,
MOTECH, China). The oxygen concentration in the tank
was measured online and controlled at 2–4 mg/L. The
overall HRT was 6 h. The permeate pump was operated
in an intermittent suction mode with a cycle of 8 min
ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY 1157
on and 2 min off. Transmembrane pressure (TMP) was
continuously monitored online using a high-resolution
(0.1 kPa) pressure sensor which was connected to a per-
sonal computer for data recording. The schematic of
MBR is shown in Figure 1.
PAC used in this work was wood charcoal with the
particle size of 200 mesh. PAC was dried at 105°C for
1 h and cooled down at 25°C inside a desiccator before
use. Then, PAC was added directly into the reactor to
obtain a PAC concentration of 0, 1, 2 and 4 g/L, which
was labeled as MBR-control and MBR-PAC (1, 2 and
4 g/L), respectively. There was no further addition of
PAC into the system.
2.2. Extraction of foulants
At the end of the membrane operation cycle when TMP
reached 40 kPa, the fouled membrane module was
removed and washed using the following procedures
[9,22]: (i)The fouled membrane module was washed
with Milli-Q water, and then wiped the foulants from
the membrane surface with a sponge followed by
washed with Milli-Q water. The washing solution was col-
lected and froze-dried. The pure water flux of the mem-
branes cleaned with water was measured. (ii) After
physical cleaning, the membrane was chemically
cleaned by soaking in 0.01 mol/L NaOH, and then
0.1 wt% sodium citrate for 24 h. The washing solution
was collected separately and then filtered using a
0.45 μm membrane followed by freeze drying. After
each step of chemical cleaning, the membrane
modules were rinsed completely with Milli-Q water.
Then, the corresponding pure water fluxes of the mem-
brane module were measured.
2.3. Analytical methods
COD, NH+ 4 − N, TN, VSS and MLSS were measured
according to the standard methods [25]. TOC was
measured by a Shimadzu analyzer. Polysaccharides and
proteins were quantified in SMP samples filtered with
0.45 μm membrane. Polysaccharides concentrations
were determined spectrophotometrically with phenol-
sulfuric acid employing glucose as the standard [26].
Protein concentrations were determined with the
Lowry method [27] using bovine serum albumin as the
standard.
The resistance analysis was measured by applying
resistance-in-series model to evaluate the membrane fil-
tration characteristics [8,23,28]. Fourier transform infra-
red spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to investigate the
structural information of the foulants extracted from
the membrane module.
1158 S. ZHANG ET AL.
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of MBR.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. COD, NH+
4 − N and TN removal
Figure 2 shows the removal efficiencies of COD in MBR
with and without PAC. There was no significant differ-
ence in COD removal rate for the four studied systems,
i.e. no discernible increase in COD removal before and
after addition of PAC. Average COD removal rates of
the supernatants were 92.44%⍰92.86% and 92.22% of
MBR-PAC with 1, 2 and 4 g/L compared with 92.02%
of MBR-control. Their corresponding total removal rates
were 95.35%, 95.41%, 95.01% and 94.26%, respectively.
This result indicated that the addition of PAC had a
weak but positive effect on COD removal. It is worth
noting that in the MBR-PAC (2 g/L) system, both the
supernatant and effluent got best removal efficiency,
which had good interception and degradation effect
on the soluble molecules in water and kept the effluent
quality stable [29]. Hu et al. [18] also found that 2 g/L of
PAC was more conducive to COD removal. This was
similar to the observation of Zhao and Gu [23], who
reported that a dosage of 1.5 g/L PAC added in MBR
resulted in the highest removal rate of the supernatant
COD in the early stage of operation.
Average NH+ 4 − N removal rates of the supernatants
were 98.59%, 98.89% and 97.63% for MBR-PAC with 1,
2 and 4 g/L PAC compared with 94.82% of MBR-
control, respectively (see supporting materials Figure
S1). The corresponding NH+ 4 − N removal rates were
94.19%, 98.81%, 98.89% and 97.08% as PAC dosage
increased. The NH+ 4 − N removal efficiency of the MBR
in the presence of PAC was higher than that of MBR-
control. The increased degree of NH+ 4 − N removal was
similar at 1 g/L and 2 g/L of PAC. The result also
suggested that PAC addition increased NH+ 4 −N
removal rate but much higher dosage could not
improve its removal efficiency. Compared to organic
matter removal (COD), PAC addition was beneficial to
ammonia removal. The higher specific surface of PAC
was favorable for the nitrifying bacterial to proliferate,
thus enhancing their biological reaction rate [20]. In
addition, the ammonia nitrogen content of the super-
natant was almost the same as the effluent for all MBRs
systems. That was explained by that ammonia nitrogen
existed in the form of hydrated ammonia ions in water,
and it could free cross through the membrane pores.
The removal of TN was also monitored (see support-
ing materials Figure S2 and Figure S3). The average
removal rates were 40.38%, 38.80%, 38.55% and
37.44% for MBR without and with PAC content of 1, 2
and 4 g/L, respectively. The MBR in this work contained
no anoxic zone to support simultaneous nitrification
and denitrification. This is consistent with other works
[8,30], who found no discernible increase in TN
removal after addition of PAC.
3.2. MLSS, MLVSS/MLSS and SVI
The variation of MLSS and MLVSS concentration in the
four MBRs are shown in Figure 3. An estimated 4 g/L
PAC added into MBR resulted in a more considerable
increment in MLSS concentration in the initial 0–40
days than those of the lower PAC concentrations of 0,
1 and 2 g/L. Also, at the same period, no significant
changes in MLSS concentration were observed
between MBR-control and MBR-PAC (1 and 2 g/L)
systems. This again meant that higher PAC dosage was
more conducive to promote rapid propagation of micro-
organism. MLSS concentrations of MBR-PAC systems
were higher than MBR-control in the later 90–147 days.
PAC helped in microbial growth due to the increase in
an available surface area [31,32]. The MLSS concentration
of the MBR-PAC systems maintained at 15–17 g/L in the
later 125–147 days.
MLVSS/MLSS increased in all MBRs, showing that the
sludge activity improved during long-term operation,

Figure 2. Variation of COD in the MBRs: (a) MBR-control, (b) MBR-PAC(1 g/L), (c) MBR-PAC(2 g/L) and (d) MBR-PAC(4 g/L).
and the growth and reproduction of microorganisms
also increased [33]. There was no remarkable difference
observed in MLVSS/MLSS values of all the MBRs.
However, the MLVSS/MLSS of MBR-control was slightly
higher than MBR-PAC systems until the 120th day,
meaning that PAC addition did not lead to the increase
in MLVSS/MLSS ratio. Even in the later 140–167 days,
the MLVSS/MLSS of the MBRs was also close. The
average values of MLVSS/MLSS were 0.74–0.78, which
were close to the value of 0.75 in urban sewage
Figure 3. Variation of MLSS and MLVSS/MLSS versus time.
ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY 1159
treatment plant [34], illustrating that in this work, the
reactors were in a relatively stable operation state.
It is clear from Figure 4 that SVI showed a sharp
increase in the initial operation stage of MBR-control
system. While SVI of MBR-PAC systems presented a
gradual increase, suggesting that addition of PAC miti-
gated the SVI increment. The temperature was above
30°C in the initial 0–45 days, resulting in increased SVI fol-
lowed by a decrease due to the increased temperature
[35]. Also, high SVI was normally attributed to the
growth of filamentous bacteria [32], which was
Figure 4. SVI in MBR-control and MBR-PAC systems.
1160 S. ZHANG ET AL.
confirmed by the presence of filamentous fungi in differ-
ent levels observed by microscopic examination of
sludge in this period (see supporting materials Figure
S4). After 63 days of operation, the SVI decreased signifi-
cantly even at a high biomass concentration. SVI stabil-
ized below 100 mL/g in the later 127–147 days. This
revealed that the dependence of SVI on MLSS in the
initial and later phases of MBR with and without PAC.
SVI values of all MBRs in this work were always below
140 mL/g. The SVI of MBR-PAC systems was lower than
MBR-control. Especially, 2 and 4 g/L of PAC resulted
in lower SVI values, which were less than 100 mL/g and
Figure 5. (a) SMP in the MBRs, (b) Protein and polysaccharide in
SMP and (c) P/C ratio in SMP.
120 mL/g during the whole operation period, respect-
ively. Thus, PAC addition could improve the sludge
settling properties. The better settleability may be attrib-
uted to the role of PAC in promoting colloid and small
particles’ coagulation to form bigger particles [36],
which would enhance strong sludge flocs [37] and/or
incompressible flocs’ formation [38].
3.3. SMP
Figure 5(a) presents the SMP concentration in the MBRs.
SMP decreased from 9.75 to 7.93 mg/gMLSS in the MBR-
control system during the initial 15 days. Thereafter, SMP
increased to about 10 mg/gMLSS in 45–60 days, and
then decreased in the later 60–147 days. The value fluc-
tuated between 4.55 and 6.55 mg/gMLSS during the
later period. The SMP of MBR-PAC systems decreased
and the variation was marginal with values ranging
from 8.3 to 9.0 mg/gMLSS and 5.1–5.7 mg/gMLSS for
MBR-PAC (1 g/L) and MBR-PAC (4 g/L) in the initial 45
days, respectively. The SMP of MBR-PAC (2 g/L)
decreased by 50% from 11.9 to 5.6 mg/gMLSS in the
same period. Then, the SMP of MBR-PAC systems
increased slightly followed by a decrement in the later
60–147 days.
There was a difference in SMP content in MBR-control
and MBR-PAC systems. The SMP of MBR-PAC systems
was lower than that of MBR-control. SMP decreased by
62.2%, 69.4% and 50.65% in MBRs with PAC of 1, 2 and
4 g/L, respectively. 2 g/L PAC resulted in considerably
lower SMP. These results suggested that PAC addition
could affect the SMP concentration. Damayanti et al.
[5] have also found that the removal rate of SMP in
MBR with PAC was 58%, and demonstrated that PAC
had a good effect on SMP removal. The PAC adsorbed
higher numbers of bacteria [9], and therefore, enhanced
biodegradation was likely to have taken place in the
MBR-PAC system [14].
3.4. Protein/carbohydrate (polysaccharide) ratio
Figure 5(b) presents the protein and polysaccharide con-
centration in the MBRs. The protein and polysaccharide
concentration in SMP did not display a clear trend, and
the variation of them was erratic with sharp fluctuation.
However, the average concentration of protein in the
supernatant were 22.02, 20.75, 17.42 and 20.01 mg/L
for MBR with PAC of 0, 1, 2 and 4 g/L, respectively, and
the corresponding average contents of polysaccharide
were 10.43, 9.75, 8.45, and 9.43 mg/L, respectively.
MBR-PAC (2 g/L) system had the lowest protein and poly-
saccharide content in SMP. The protein and polysacchar-
ide in SMP in the MBR-PAC system were slightly lower
 ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY 1161

than that of MBR-control. This can be explained by the 3.5. TMP profile
attached growth of biomass on PAC, resulting in the
Under constant flow conditions, the local flux of the
lower synthesis of protein and polysaccharides, and
membrane modules increased, while the TMP increased
SMP adsorbed on PAC.
slowly. When the membrane fouling reached a certain
Many studies have shown that polysaccharides in SMP
extent, the filtration area decreased due to the fouling
are more likely to cause membrane fouling than proteins,
and an increase in local flux, resulting in the pollutants
and it was responsible for the evolution of irreversible
forming cake layers rapidly in the region and it urged
fouling [28,37]. The fouling rate of SMP was positively
TMP to increase suddenly [38].Thus, TMP is a significant
correlated with the polysaccharides’ content [32,39].
parameter for MBR fouling prediction [8]. The influences
This implied that in this work, the SMP in the MBR-PAC
of PAC on the TMP profiles of the MBRs during the first
system had a lower fouling potential, which was also
and second cycle are shown in Figure 6. TMP approach-
indicated in TMP profiles that would be discussed in
ing 50 kPa was set in the first cycle, and 40 kPa in the fol-
the following section. The results were similar to the
lowing operation cycles.
observation of Satyawali and Balakrishnan [32], who
A continuous increase in TMP value was caused by
found that the addition of PAC in MBR resulted in a
fouling formation in/on the membrane during the fil-
decline in both protein and polysaccharide concen-
tration process. Compared with MBR-control system,
tration in SMP.
the time was 78, 84 and 63 d of filtration period for
The protein-to-polysaccharide (P/C) ratio for the MBRs
MBR-PAC (1, 2 and 4 g/L) in the first cycle, respectively.
is shown in Figure 5(c). It is clear that protein was the
The improvement in filterability was obtained in the
dominant component in the SMP from all the MBRs as
MBR-PAC systems by extending the filtration time by
also indicated in Figure 4(b). The average P/C ratio was
almost twofold, signifying the positive effect of PAC on
2.79, 2.60, 2.30 and 2.67 for MBR-control and MBR-PAC
prolonging the MBR operation. Nguyen et al. [30]
with 1, 2 and 4 g/L of PAC, respectively. The P/C ratio
found that the variation in TMP was not significant
was consistently lower in the MBR-PAC system, and the
before and after PAC addition. Other works reported
lowest ratio was obtained in MBR-PAC (2 g/L). Satyawali
that the addition of PAC into MBR did not improve mem-
and Balakrishnan et al. [32] reported that the P/C ratio
brane performance [40] but could rather promote mem-
of the reactor with 2 g/L PAC was higher than that
brane fouling [23,41]. The mechanisms to alleviate
without PAC, and suggested that high P/C ratio improved
membrane fouling included the adsorption of mem-
settleability due to hydrophobic nature of the protein.
brane foulants on PAC, scouring action of PAC, changing
However, in this work, the low P/C ratio seemed to
the composition and permeability of the cake layer and
exhibit better settleability, which correlated well with
improving flocculation of MLSS [12,36,37]. Much lower
the lower SVI values. In addition, the affinity between
SMP content in MBR-PAC systems could also interpret
proteins and foulants should generally be greater than
the difference of TMP [10].
that between polysaccharides and flocs in relation to
In order to better understand the fouling rate of the
their hydrophobicity and surface charge; thus, much
four MBR systems, the membrane fouling rate K was
more proteins were found in the reactors [14].
obtained as ΔTMP/(JΔt). The TMP profiles seemed to
exhibit two stages of fouling, the rapid increase followed
by a steep TMP rise. The two phases of the K values in the
first and second cycle are listed in Table 1. The K1 values
for all the MBR systems were less than K2, suggesting the
fouling rate in the later stage of MBR was higher than
that in the early stage. Especially, the fouling rate of
MBR-PAC system was slower than that in MBR-control

Table 1. Fouling rate of operation cycles in the MBRs.

First cycle Second cycle
MBR PAC (g/L) K1 K2 K K1 K2 K
MBR-control 0 1.55 6.18 3.87 1.16 6.83 3.97
MBR-PAC 1 0.92 4.00 2.46 1.19 5.76 3.47
2 0.98 3.73 2.37 1.09 5.57 3.33
4 1.16 5.16 3.16 1.02 6.35 3.69
Figure 6. TMP variation in the MBRs. Note: K1, slow phase; K2, rapid phase and K, average value.
1162 S. ZHANG ET AL.
system in each stage. PAC addition can be a good control
of the increase in TMP. Meanwhile, the K values of MBR-
PAC (2 g/L) were the smallest one among the four MBRs,
indicating that PAC loading of 2 g/L was found to be suit-
able in membrane fouling mitigation.
3.6. Resistance analysis
The resistance analysis results are summarized in Table 2.
MBR-PAC showed a lower total resistance compared to
MBR-control. Cake resistance was the main component
of the total hydraulic resistance (Rt), having much
higher value compared to membrane and pore blocking
resistance. Hence, the total fouling resistance was more
or less a function of the cake resistance. In addition,
the membranes suffered from low levels of irreversible
fouling (Rf). Moreover, the cake resistance decreased
with an increase in PAC concentration. The results indi-
cated that the reduction in total resistance was mainly
due to the decrease in cake resistance. The incorporation
of PAC in MBR could be responsible for the reduction in
cake resistance [42], as it formed an incompressible par-
ticular layer of high fluid permeability [12].
It is reported that PAC could help not only reduce the
cake fouling but also prevent pore blocking [8,43]. The
irreversible fouling resistance was slightly higher in
the MBR-PAC system when compared to MBR-control.
The explanation of this result may be that at a higher
PAC dosage, there was a more serious biofouling [23]
and increased pore blocking by particles in the size
range of the membrane pores [7]. In addition, MBR-PAC
(2 g/L) exhibited the lowest fouling resistance and irre-
versible resistance.
3.7. FTIR investigation for foulants
Figure 7(a) shows the FTIR spectra of the foulants
extracted by water from the fouled membranes of the
four MBRs. The main bands identified from the contami-
nants in the cake layers corresponded to – OH groups of
organic matter (3420 cm−1) C–O of proteins (amide I)
(1635 cm−1) [44], nitrate (−1386 cm−1) [45], C–O of
Table 2. Filtration resistance in MBR-PAC with different addition
of PAC.
MBR-PAC/ (g/L)
Resistance 0 1
Total resistance (Rt, 1012m−1) 18.25 17.88
Membrane resistance (Rm, 1012m−1) 0.40 0.41
Cake resistance (Rc, 1012 m−1) 15.75 14.32
Irreversible fouling resistance (Rf, 1012 m−1) 2.10 3.15
Rc/Rt 86.30 80.09
Rf/Rt 11.51 17.62
polysaccharides (−1130 cm−1), C–H of aromatic amino
acids and nucleotides (600–660 cm−1) [46]. Band inten-
sity indicated that the quantity of functional groups is
responsible for infrared spectroscopy (IR) absorption for
each frequency. MBR-control and MBR-PAC (4 g/L) pre-
sented the greater intensity for the above-mentioned
bands, which would be expected considering the
higher content of the contaminants [47]. The results
revealed that PAC addition reduced the contaminants’
adsorption and deposition in the cake layer on the mem-
brane surface. However, a higher dosage of PAC resulted
in contaminants adsorbed on the PAC would be easier to
deposit on the membrane surface [23].
There were clear differences between the peaks as
shown in Figure 7(a,b). A peak around 2978 and
1442 cm−1 suggested the dominance of humic acids
[44,48]. The observed peaks at around 2496 cm−1
(881 cm−1), 1774 and 1006 cm−1 were attributed to car-
bonates in calcite, silicates and phosphates, respectively
[47]. It is inferred that the humic matters and inorganic
salts made the main contribution to irreversible mem-
brane fouling that should be cleaned by NaOH. It
should be noted the increase in the relative intensities
of the bands revealed that PAC increased the irreversible
membrane fouling in terms of humic matters and the
inorganic salts.
As can be seen from Figure 7(c) in the main bands of
contaminants extracted with 0.1% sodium citrate, there
were C=O groups of carboxylic acids, esters, ketones
and aldehydes (1750–1700 cm−1), C=C of humic
matters (1430 cm−1) [49]. The peaks around 1200–
900 cm−1 were assigned to carbohydrates and nucleic
acids [46,48]. The peak at 1140 cm−1 was attributed to
polysaccharides. The fingerprint region between 900
and 600 cm−1 exhibited ring vibration from aromatic
amino acids and nucleotides [46]. This meant that poly-
saccharides, aromatic matters, nucleic acids and low mol-
ecular weight organics (carboxylic acids, esters, ketones
and aldehydes) induced the irreversible fouling that
should be cleaned by sodium citrate. It is clear from
the relative intensities of the bands that PAC could also
reduce significantly the membrane fouling caused by
these foulants. In addition, polysaccharide did not
cause significant effects on the irreversible fouling in
the PAC hybrid MBR as indicated in Figure 7(b), and it
may be due to the lower content of them in the
reactor. This is in accordance with the result of Khan
2 4 et al. [14].
16.37 17.39
0.40 0.39
13.16 12.79 4. Conclusions
2.81 4.21
80.39 73.55 With the addition of PAC, MBR systems achieved a stable
17.17 24.21
removal efficiency: 95% for COD and 98% forNH+ 4 − N.

Figure 7. FTIR spectra of membrane pollutants: (a) extracted cake layers by water, (b) extracted foulants by 0.01 mol/L NaOH, (c)
extracted foulants by 0.1 wt% sodium citrate.
Compared with the control MBR, SMP release decreased
by 50–70% and P/C ratio slightly decreased. The cake
resistance as the predominant resistance fraction
reduced by 18.80% as PAC dosage increased to 4 g/L.
Polysaccharides did not cause any significant effects on
the irreversible fouling. The increased irreversible
fouling after PAC addition may be attributed to humic
substances and inorganic salts. PAC reduced the cake
layer accumulation and decreased pore blocking, and
thereby mitigated the membrane fouling rate and
extended the filtration period. PAC as an effective
fouling reducer with the optimum dosage of 2 g/L exhib-
ited improved sludge properties and enhanced mem-
brane performance.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Funding
This work was supported by Hubei Provincial Natural Science
Foundation (No. 2016CFB495), and the Fundamental Research
Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2662017JC019).
ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY 1163
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