Advanced Treatment of Wastewater from UASB Reactor by Microfiltration Membrane Associated With Disinfection by Ultraviolet Radiation

The low efficiency of UASB bioreactors, regarding the removal of nutrient, organic matter and pathogens, makes it necessary to carry out a post treatment, in order to improve the quality of the effluent. Accordingly, this research has examined the use of microfiltration associated to the disinfection by the ultraviolet radiation, as an option to this post treatment. For so, were collected samples of UASB reactors’ effluent, in order to carry out some tests on a pilot microfiltration system, using in one of the samples pre-coagulation with vegetable tannin. After, all the microfiltrated samples were inserted in a UV reactor, applying different radiation doses, ranging from 43.8 to 194.9 mWs.cm-2, to simulate the disinfection. The system used showed good results in terms of turbidity removal, apparent color, true color, phosphorus, nitrogen, total solids, total suspended solids and COD, reaching in the best operating condition, the following values: 1.90 uT, 15 uC, 10 uC, 0.94 mg/L, 17.64 mg/L, 123 mg/L, 0 mg/L and 10 mg/L, respectively, which represent the following removal percentages: 91.3%, 93.6%, 82.0%, 55.1%, 26.3%, 35% and 86.1%. The inactivation obtained for E. coli, total coliforms, colifagos and Clostridium perfrigens was satisfactory, achieving a higher inactivation than the detection limit of the method used, when submitted to the highests tested radiation doses. The average permeate flux ranged from 55.2 to 133.6 L.m-2.h-1