Membrane Technology for Municipal Wastewater Systems

Existing municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) in Canada may face challenges meeting new effluentdischarge regulations for total suspended solids (TSS) and biological oxygen demand (BOD) under the CCMECanada Wide Strategy for the Management of Municipal Wastewater Effluent regulations. Wastewater utilitieswill be looking for alternative technologies in the coming years to meet more stringent national water qualitystandards for sewage treatment effluents. The use of membrane technology to treat secondary effluent frommunicipal wastewater treatment plants continues is an emerging field for systems that require tertiary treatmentfor potable and non-potable water reuse applications. The use of low-pressure membranes, specificallyultrafiltration (UF) modules may offer an alternative, cost effective approach to achieve superior water qualityon treated effluents that can meet the new national discharge standards without major system upgrades orredesign of existing systems. UF membranes can provide an absolute barrier to particulate material as small as0.01 µm which would achieve efficient removal of the target constituents that many current primary orsecondary WWTP designs cannot consistently achieve. This 6-month research project will benefit municipalwastewater treatment sector by investigating at pilot-scale the effectiveness of using membrane technology onsecondary effluent and determining the discharge water quality that can be achieved. Results of the study willprovide new information that can be used by the wastewater industry to achieve target water qualities to meetnew discharge standards and/or systems that are being designed/modified for water reclamation applications.