Desalination 202 (2006) 144149

An application of membrane bio-reactor process for the

wastewater treatment of Qingdao International Airport
Zhiqiang Liua,b*, Miao Qunb, Wenchao Anc, Zhenai Sund
a

Xian University of Architecture and Technology, Xian 710055, China

Tel. +86 532-88851266; Fax +86 532-85071256; email: Lab506@163.com
b
Qingdao Technological University, Qingdao 266033, China
c
Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China
d
Qingdao Municipal Tourism Development Corporation, Qingdao 266061, China
Received 31 July 2005; accepted 23 December 2005

Abstract
A membrane bio-reactor (MBR) process was used as a backbone treatment component at the Qingdao
International Airport Wastewater Treatment Station (WWTS) Qingdao, China, to biologically remove COD,
nitrogen and phosphorus. This paper describes the design of the MBR as well as the operating results of the
station. The design of the MBR emphasized efficiency, simplicity, reliability, low construction and O&M costs,
and low land requirement. The WWTS was commissioned and formally put into operation in 2002. The two years
influent BOD5, COD, SS, T-N and T-P averaged at 102, 208, 160, 36.2 and 1.7 mg/L respectively. The final
treated effluent BOD5, COD, SS, T-N and T-P for the same period averaged 5.2, 17.3, 4 , 11.6 and 0.4 mg/L
respectively. In comparison with the national effluent standard requirements for BOD5, SS, T-N and T-P of less
than 0.8, 6, 3.4 and 0.12 mg/L respectively, the two years operating results of the WWTS demonstrate that the
MBR process is both effective and efficient in meeting the water discharge and reuse quality requirements at
the airport.
Keywords: Membrane bio-reactor; Qingdao Airport; Wastewater treatment; Wastewater reuse

1. Introduction
The wastewater treatment station of
Qingdao International Airport which includes
*Corresponding author.

membrane bio-reactor (MBR) and anoxic unit

for chemical oxygen demand (COD) and
nitrogen removal was designed to have a total
capacity of 2700 m3/day in two phases. The
first phase, commissioned in 2003, was
designed to treat the flow of 1000 m3/day and

Presented at the conference on Wastewater Reclamation and Reuse for Sustainability (WWRS2005), November
811, 2005, Jeju, Korea. Organized by the International Water Association (IWA) and the Gwangju Institute of
Science and Technology (GIST).
0011-9164/06/$ See front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.desal.0000.00.000

Z. Liu et al. / Desalination 202 (2006) 144149

achieve a final effluent with a COD concentration <20 mg/L and a total suspended solid (SS)
concentration <7 mg/L. It is the largest MBR
facility currently used in Asia. The flow of the
wastewater treatment station mainly comes
from the sewage and wastewater in the airport.
The treated effluent is reused for afforestation,
fire-fighting and landscaping. The process flow
schematic of Qingdao Airport wastewater
treatment station is showed in Fig. 1.
The wastewater treatment station consists of:
1) Collection well: Wastewater flows into the
well by gravity and is pumped to the mechanical
screen. A water level sensor was installed to
control the pump on and off operation.
2) Screen: Two mechanical screens were
installed to remove the floating matters and
protect the pumps.
3) Equalization tank: The main function of
the equalization tank is to adjust the flow and
quality of wastewater. It can essentially eliminate the design capacity of the treatment system
to accommodate the peak flow. The MBR and
denitrification processes also benefit by providing
a constant flow through the system.
4) Anoxic reactor: It is used as denitrification.
Two submarine mixers were installed for the
complete mixing of the wastewater and recycling
sludge from MBR.
5) MBR: 52 membrane modules were
installed in the MBR (20 modules for the first
phase, 32 modules for the second phase). The
membrane which is made of polythene and has

145

aperture 0.1 mm was supplied by Mitsubishi

Rayon Co., LTD. There is a perforated pipe
aerator installed on the bottom of the reactor.
The air was supplied by the blowers.
6) Disinfection: The NaClO solution with
concentration of 15% is injected into the effluent
pipe by a metering dosing pump.
7) Online backwash: It consists of back
flushing pump, rotameter and level meter. The
operation of online backwash depends on the
time and differential pressure across the membrane. When the operation reaches the set time,
or the differential pressure across membrane is
higher than the set value, the system will
automatically have a backwash.
8) Sludge treatment: The WAS sludge from
the MBR is pumped into the sludge storage
tank, and then dewatered by vacuum.
9) Renovated water supply: There are three
clean water pumps and four transducers. The water
pump was chosen according to the circumstance of
water consumption. The transducers control the
water pressure and the amount of water supply is stable. (1) High automation operation.
The operation of the station is controlled
automatically by PLC. It doesnt need personnel for daily operation normally, and can be
switched into manual manner in emergency.
(2) Small foot print. The built-in MBR has the
function of extracting clean water aerobic
tank, so no sedimentation tank is required. (3)
Less WAS and lower sludge treatment cost.
The longer sludge retention time (SRT) in the

Sludge
storage tank

Overflow

Sludge
dewatering

WAS
Influent

Collection
Well

Screen

Equalization
tank

Anoxic
reactor

Aerobic
reactor

RAS

Fig. 1. The process flow schematic of Qingdao Airport wastewater treatment station.

Clean
tank
NaClO

Effluent

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Z. Liu et al. / Desalination 202 (2006) 144149

Table 1
The influent and effluent quality
Item

Influent (average)

Effluent (average)

Water quality standard

(GB/T18920-2002)

Water quality standard

(GB/T18921-2002)

pH
NTU
SS (mg/L)
COD (mg/L)
BOD5 (mg/L)
NH3-N (mg/L)
TP (mg/L)
TN (mg/L)
DO (mg/L)

7.6

160.0
208.0
102.0
39.0
1.7
36.2

6.9
0.3
4.0
17.3
5.2
1.4
0.4
11.6
1.9

6.0 9.0
5
10

10
10

1.0

6.0 9.0

10

6
5
0.5
15
1.5

system caused less WAS and lower sludge

treatment costs.

removal of NTU, SS, COD, NH3-N, TP, TN.

The effluent quality was better than the
designed. The DO in anoxic reactor was less
than 0.5 mg/L while the DO in MBR was in the
range of 7.08.0 mg/L. Nitration and denitrification could be fully carried out. The NH3-N of
influent in the range of 18.648.7 mg/L (the
average was 39.0 mg/L) , the NH3-N of effluent
in the range of 0.14.5 mg/L (the average was
1.27 mg/L). Figs. 2 and 3 show the COD and
NH3-N removal variation during the time of
2004.8.12004.10.10.
From Figs. 2 and 3, it can be seen that: (1)
The removal of COD and NH3-N is stable with

2. Operation results
The wastewater treatment station has put in
operation for two years since September, 2003.
The normally sludge concentration in MBR is
more than 3000 mg/L. The effluent quality has
been better than the designed. Table 1 shows the
influent and effluent quality and the National
Water Quality Standard.
As shown in Table 1, in normal operation, the
wastewater treatment station had a remarkable

250
Influent
Equalization tank
effluent
Anoxic reactor
effluent
Supernatant

COD (mg/L)

200
150
100
50

Effluent

Date

Fig. 2. Variation of COD concentration.

7
10

23

30
9

9
1

9
9

12
8
19
8
26
9
2

8
5

Z. Liu et al. / Desalination 202 (2006) 144149

147

60
Influent

NH4-N (mg/L)

50

Equalization tank
effluent
Anoxic reactor
effluent
Supernatant

40
30
20
10

Effluent

9
2
9
9
9
16
9
23
9
30
10
7

8
26

8
19

8
12

8
5

Date

Fig. 3. Variation of NH3-N concentration.

removal efficiency both higher than 90%,

indicating the remarkable removal of COD and
NH3-N in the MBR process; (2) While the
quality of influent and the supernatant fluctuated
in a wide range, the COD of effluent was still
stable, showing the high capacity to resist the
load variation; (3) The system was operated
intermittently (work and pause for 8 min and
2 min, respectively), so the COD of supernatant
was equivalent to the effluent of traditional secondary sedimentation tank under the same condition. It demonstrated that under the same
condition, the effluent of MBR was better than
that of the traditional sedimentation tank; (4)
The NH3-N concentrations of the supernatant
and effluent were approximately same, which
could be explained by the fact that the NH3-N was
ion which could passed through the micropores of
the membrane. As a result, the ammonia nitrogen
was mainly removed by the microorganisms in
the MBR. The high membrane interception of the
MBR provides the suitable growing and regenerating conditions for the long sludge age required
nitrobacteria.
Except the period of sludge bulking, the
excess sludge was discharged only twice
during the two-year operation with sludge discharge of 100 kg (dry weight) each time. It
showed the advantage of MBR in reducing
excess sludge. However, even though the
amount of undegradable substance in the

domestic sewerage is small, attention should be

paid to the accumulation of such substance in
the MBR with the increased accumulation of
undegradable and toxic substance in the system, the amount of the discharged sludge
should be increased accordingly.
3. Effluent quality and utilization
From beginning of the operation, the effluent
quality of the wastewater treatment station satisfies the water quality standards of GB/T189202002 and GB/T18921-2002 with COD 20 mg/
L (the average of 17.3 mg/L) and SS 7.0 mg/
L (the average of 4.0 mg/L). With the present
treatment capacity of 1000 m3/d, the effluent
utilization percentage for afforestation, landscape, fire-fighting and discharged are 30, 40,
20 and 10%, respectively.
4. Membrane fouling and cleaning
The aperture of the membrane in the MBR is
0.1 mm, which is easily to be fouled. The membrane modules need to be backwashed when the
pressure difference between out and inner of
membrane is less than 0.07 MPa. Normally, the
cleaning needs to be taken every three months
using NaClO solution of 3000 mg/L. The adhesive substance on the membrane surface will be
formed if backwashing measure is not taken.

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Z. Liu et al. / Desalination 202 (2006) 144149

Fig. 4. Photos of the fouling membrane.

Since once such cake formed, the effectiveness of

the backwashing will decrease, the monitoring of
the pressure difference is very important for MBR
operation.
Based on the observation of a group
membrane module during the period of sludge
bulking happened in August, 2004, it was found
that a lot of sludge was conglutinated on the surface of membrane especially on the middle of
bottom membranes. The membrane fiber was
covered by a large amount of black sludge.
After cleaning off the sludge on surface with
water, it was found that there was a lot of membrane fiber covered by compact sludge which
was hard to be cleaned by water alone anymore.
It was also noticed that the top part of the membrane was earthy yellow and the bottom part
was black while a small amount of membrane
fiber was broken and some bottom membrane
module severely deformed. Fig. 4 is the photos
of fouling membrane taken on the spot.
It can be concluded from above observation
that: (1) Membrane fouling was the main reason

for membrane fiber brokenness and service life

decrease; (2) The threads fouled around the membrane were fine fiber and hair which decreased
the service life of the membrane; (3) The designed
distance between layers (about 10 mm) was too
small that the sludge on the surface of the membrane fiber could not be well removed by the
washing of aeration. As a result, the bottom of the
membrane module was covered by a large amount
of sludge and the membrane silk were stretched.
The membrane modules should have been
chemically washed by dismantling all the modules once every year to decrease the membrane
fouling. NaClO solution was used for chemical
washing and the damaged membranes (approximately 1% of the total) have been replaced.
However, the chemical washing also brings
troubles for the operation. When the fouling is
irreversible and the backwashing frequency is
less than once a month, the membrane modules
should be replaced on time. The investment of
the facilities and membrane modules was 74.3%
of total investment.

Z. Liu et al. / Desalination 202 (2006) 144149

5. Investment and operating cost

5.1. Project investment
The capacity of the wastewater treatment station is 1000 m3/d with the building area of about
10,000 m2. The total investment was 5.5 million
RMB (not including the pipelines outside of the
wastewater treatment station), of which 1.1
million was used for civil construction works
and 4.4 million for facilities and membrane
modules.
5.2. Operating cost
The operation cost of this treatment system
includes the cost of electricity, chemicals (disinfection, backwashing and sludge dewatering)
and labors. (1) Electricity cost: according to the
daily electric power consumption, the electricity
cost is 0.504 /t. (2) Chemicals cost: including
disinfection, backwashing and dewatering, the
chemicals cost is 0.115 /t. (3) Labors cost:
there are two managerial personnel, the labor
cost is 0.067 /t. From the analysis above, the
total cost of the treated water is 0.58 /t.

149

of smaller footprint, less excess sludge, less civil

construction investment, lower operation cost,
simpler operation and maintenance and higher
degree of automation. The social and economic
benefits are excellent.
Membrane fouling is still the bottleneck
problem of the MBR application, which influences not only the permeate flux of the system
but also the service life of the membrane. How
to diminish the membrane fouling is still an
unsolved problem. The possible methods to
improve MBR process could be using contact
bio-oxidation process; adding filler or active
carbon into the reactor to provide carrier for the
sludge and reduce the suspended sludge concentration; diminishing the membrane fouling
caused by the sludge grain; increasing the
permeate flux and reducing the concentration
polarization.
The pretreatment of wastewater should be
strengthened in order to reduce the membrane
fouling and harmfulness caused by the fine fiber
and hair in the wastewater.
References

6. Conclusion
The application of MBR for the wastewater
treatment in Qingdao International Airport is successful based on the result of the two-year-long
operation and the stability of the effluent quality
and quantity. The monitoring result indicated
that the effluent quality of the MBR was better
than the water quality standard for miscellaneous water consumption, and the effluent could
be totally used for afforestation, fire-fighting
and landscape. Compared with traditional treatment process, MBR system has the advantages

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