Fouling modeling of the mixed liquor in MBR by the individual and combined models.

To predict the membrane fouling phenomena in the membrane filtration operation, the individual models derived from Darcy's law and the corresponding combined models were employed to investigate the kind of models that provided better fits. The filtration of the mixed liquid from membrane bioreactors with different sludge retention time (SRT) at a constant pressure was carried out. The variation of applied pressure had significantly effect on the kind of the individual model provided better fit for the data at longer SRT and less effect for the data at shorter SRT, though it had less effect on the kind of the combined model that provided better fit. The kind of model that provided better fit did not change when the concentration of the diluted mixed liquor was at a certain range, even though the dilution ratio would lead to the variation of the prediction results. The cake-standard model and the complete-standard model provided good fits at different pressure and at different dilution ratio, respectively. The cake-standard and complete-standard models may be applicable to systems where these models are consistent with the experimentally observed fouling mechanisms.