Membrane technology and phycoremediation, which utilizes algae for nutrient removal, are two
major emerging technologies for wastewater treatment. Membrane photobioreactors (MPBRs)
integrate these technologies and provide promising technology to render wastewater for reuse in
the industrial or agricultural domains. One of the main current limitations of this technology is
membrane fouling, and developing a proper technique to address this issue in MPBRs has
remained a gap in this sector.
With the major aim of alleviating membrane fouling in MPBRs, this study modified the design of
the current MPBRs to utilize an electric field. Using graphite sheet as anode and stainless steel
mesh as simultaneous membrane support and a cathode on each side of the membrane module was
developed to ameliorate membrane performance. This novel design helps to repel biomass from
the membrane surface with the charge introduced by a low voltage direct current (DC) electric
field. The membrane performance of the electrokinetic-assisted MPBR (EK-MPBR) as well as the
biological performance of this recently developed technology, have been investigated. Synthetic
municipal wastewater was treated by an EK-MPBR and ran in parallel with a control MPBR for
49 days, where EK-MPBR demonstrated significant improvement in terms of membrane fouling
inhibition with 50% less fouling frequency. Considerable enhancement in phosphorus (P) removal
was another advantage of the EK-MPBR compared to the control MPBR with the EK-MPBR
having 56% better P removal. Involved electrokinetic phenomena such as electrophoresis,
electroosmosis, and electrochemical reactions contributed to the performance of EK-MPBRs in
terms of cell size reduction, dewaterability, and bacterial growth and agglomeration inhibition,
respectively, leading to change in algal morphology. [...
