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Project Description - EUROMBRA
Membrane bioreactor technology for advanced municipal wastewater treatment strategies

		EUROMRA Specific Targeted Research Project supported by the European Commission under the Sixth Framework Programme (Priority "Global Change and Ecosystems") Duration: 01/10/2005 - 30/09/2008 Contract No.: 018480 - EUROMBRA Budget: €4.2 m (incl. €3.0 m EU subvention and €0.2 m from Australian government)

The World is running out of clean, safe, fresh water. By 2025 one third of humanity (ca. 3 billion people) will face severe water scarcity. This has been described as the "single greatest threat to health, the environment and global food security". Water is essential and preservation of its safety in quantity and in quality is critical to the sustainable development of any society. The goal of this project is to make a contribution to meet this challenge. The protection of water in the European Union has been encouraged through the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The intention of WFD is to protect water resources (quality and quantity) through an integrated water resource management policy. Wastewater treatment is an important aspect of water management. Efficient, cost effective treatment processes are needed for transforming wastewater into water free from contamination which can be returned to the hydrological cycle without detrimental effects. The development and application of MBR for full scale municipal wastewater treatment is the most important recent technical advance in terms of biological wastewater treatment. It represents a decisive step further concerning effluent quality by delivering a hygienically pure effluent and by exhibiting a very high operational reliability.

The overall objective of EUROMBRA is to develop a cost-effective, sustainable solution for new, efficient and advanced municipal wastewater treatment based on MBR technology. This will be achieved through a multi-faceted, concerted and cohesive research programme explicitly linking key limiting phenomena (fouling, clogging) observed and quantified on the micro-, meso-, and macro-scale. Key to the success of the programme is the harnessing of specialist knowledge, conducting of dedicated yet interlinked experiments and incorporating key aspects of both system design and operational facets, the latter encompassing hydrodynamics and mass transfer, foulant speciation and dynamic impacts.

Strategic objectives

The overall project objectives are to develop sustainable solutions for new, efficient and cost-effective advanced wastewater treatment technologies for municipal wastewater based on membrane bioreactor technology.

The specific objectives of the programme are:

• Assessment and comparison of different configurations of membranes and membrane modules
• Development of new methods for qualitative and quantitative analysis of foulants, both short and long term
• Assessment of the impact of identified foulants under a range of conditions representative of those encountered in practice
• Study of the use of novel single-filament or other dedicated test cells for optimisation and predicting behaviour at larger a scales
• Appraisal of antifouling strategies, both for short and long-term fouling, with specific reference to key adjustable operational parameters such as imposed flux, aeration and cleaning
• Assessment of the impact of dynamic effects, such as sudden increases in hydraulic and organic loading
• Examination of possible impacts of and on microbial speciation and diversity
• Examination of removal of specific contaminants through appropriate integration within process treatment scheme
• Assessment of residuals management
• Overall cost benefit analysis
• Dissemination of results

Co-ordination:
T. Leiknes, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
(torove.leiknes(at)ntnu.no)