Journal of Membrane Science 494 (2015) 136142

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Journal of Membrane Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/memsci

Electro-conditioning of activated sludge in a membrane

electro-bioreactor for improved dewatering and reduced membrane
fouling
Sharif Ibeid a,n, Maria Elektorowicz a, Jan A. Oleszkiewicz b
a
b

Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada MB R3T 5V6

art ic l e i nf o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 28 March 2015
Received in revised form
30 June 2015
Accepted 25 July 2015
Available online 28 July 2015

The impact of applying a direct current (DC) eld on the morphology and structural composition of
municipal wastewater ocs and their bound water content was investigated. The effects on sludge dewaterability and membrane fouling were assessed using batch electro-bioreactors and continuous ow
submerged membrane electro-bioreactor (SMEBR). Series of batch electro-bioreactors were tested at
current densities (CD) ranging between 5 and 35 A/m2 for three concentrations of mixed liquor suspended solids (from 3000 to 15,000 mg/l) and ve electrical exposure modes (time-ON/time-OFF). Results of batch tests showed that CD of 15 to 35 A/m2 enhanced sludge lterability, represented as specic
resistance to ltration (SRF), up to 200 times compared to sludge in the control reactor. Electrically
enhanced sludge under continuous ow (SMEBR) exhibited a reduction of SRF over the conventional
activated sludge from 8 to 86 times, while membrane fouling rate decreased by 6 times. It was assumed
that the removal of organic materials and soluble microbial products (SMP) through electro-coagulation
(up to 90% for polysaccharides and up to 50% for protein), reduction of bound water by electroosmosis,
increasing oc size through electro-bio-occulation and the reduction of sludge organic/inorganic ratio
were the major mechanisms contributed to SRF and membrane fouling reduction.
& 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Sludge lterability
Electrokinetics dewatering
Electro-bioreactor
Submerged membrane electro-bioreactor
Membrane fouling
Bound water

1. Introduction
In municipal wastewater treatment plants, sludge dewaterability can be described through either the rate of ltration or the
achievable percentage of bound water content in sludge after the
dewatering process [1]. Effective sludge dewatering is critical to
cost-effectiveness of downstream processes such as drying or
thermal oxidation. Different denitions of water distribution
within the sludge exist in literature [2], the most widely used is
the one proposed by Vesilind and coworkers [36] where water
within sludge comprises four different pools: bulk water (free
water), interstitial water, vicinal water and chemically bound
water. Chemically bound water is strongly attracted to the ocs
and can be removed at 105 C [7,8]. Bulk water represents the
fraction of water that is not associated with the solid surface and
can be found in the voids; the interstitial water represents the part
held by capillary forces; the latter two pools of water can be removed by physical means; e.g. pressure ltration, open air drying
n

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: s_ibeid@encs.concordia.ca (S. Ibeid).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2015.07.051
0376-7388/& 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

and centrifugation. Vicinal water represents the fraction that

might be attracted to organic solid surfaces within the microbial
ocs through the H-bonds between the polar water molecules and
the ocs' polar active groups such as hydroxyl and amine groups.
Christensen and Characklis [9] described the extra polymeric
substances (EPS) as a hydrated matrix with 98% water content. EPS
represents the pool of organic fractions produced by microorganisms that are located at the surfaces or outside of the microbial cell surfaces that help the aggregation of cells into ocs
[10]. Polysaccharides and protein are the major constituents of EPS
in any biomass solid surface. Nielsen et al. [11] reported that
protein is the predominant fraction of EPS formed in biolters and
trickling lters. Dignac et al. [12] illustrated that protein is the
predominant fraction of EPS found in the activated sludge. Protein
has a high density of negatively charged amino groups that act
electrostatically with cations and other active groups to form
stable ocs, yet protein is the structural unit of enzymes involved
in biochemical reactions [13]. Thus, the existence of various types
of organic materials in forms of soluble and bound EPS as major
constituents of the activated sludge liquors allows for stronger
waterbiomass bonding that makes its dewatering difcult.

S. Ibeid et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 494 (2015) 136142

Simultaneously, they contribute to a rapid membrane fouling [14].

Most mechanical dewatering processes cannot decrease water
content of biological sludge below 65% (total solids 35%) even
with the addition of thickening amendments [15]. Several works
showed a successful reduction of sludge water content by applying
electrokinetics [14,1618]. DC eld assisted dewatering systems,
combinations of conventional dewatering methods and electrokinetics, reduced water content to 53% by weight [19], to 35% [16]
and to less than 10% [17]. Such electro-dewatering systems applied
in previous works depended primarily on electroosmotic ow of
water and the process was initiated with high solids content of
waste activated sludge (WAS) after thickening (e.g. 4% TS).
The primary objective of this research was to apply DC eld to
change activated sludge structure and morphology in order to
reduce membrane fouling rate and to improve WAS properties
before any mechanical dewatering takes place. The secondary
objective was to dene the electrical operating parameters such as
voltage gradient, current density (CD) and exposure mode for
different mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) concentrations
that enhance WAS dewaterability. Membrane fouling rate reduction was discussed in details in a previous publication [20]. This
paper focuses on the outcomes that demonstrated the enhancement of sludge dewaterability, while fouling was simultaneously
reduced by applying electro-bioreactors.

2. Material and methods

2.1. Experimental setup
This study consisted of two phases carried out in batch (Phase
I) and continuous ow (Phase II) electro-bioreactors. In Phase-I a
series of batch 1 L activated sludge electro-bioreactors equipped
with aluminum anode and iron cathode were aerated to maintain
aerobic conditions. Three MLSS concentration ranges were considered: 3000 to 5000, 9000 to 10,000 and 14,000 to 15,000 mg/l.
These ranges represent any likely MLSS concentration produced in
treatment plants applying biological treatment, including membrane bioreactors (MBR). Five electrical exposure modes, 5-ON/5OFF, 5-ON/10-OFF, 5-ON/15-OFF, 5-ON/20-OFF and continuousON, were tested at current density (CD) ranging between 5 and
35 A/m2. Each reactor was tested for a minimum of 70 h. A control
batch reactor without any electrical eld was run to compare the
changes of sludge dewaterability. Specic resistance to ltration
(SRF) was measured to assess changes of sludge dewaterability.
Particle size distribution was measured to evaluate changes of
ocs morphology in electro-bioreactor under electrokinetic phenomena. Sludge in batch reactors was mixed using air stones at
low air intensity in all runs so that a minimum stirring was produced to prevent ocs mechanical disintegration.
In Phase II, 8 L working volume of a submerged membrane
electro-bioreactor (SMEBR) was operated at continuous ow
(Fig. 1), while details of SMEBR system are illustrated in previous
publications [20,21]. The cylindrical perforated cathode and anode
were located around UF hollow ber, Zeeweed-1 (GE, Canada)
membrane module of 0.04 m pore size and 0.047 m2 surface area
[22]. To ensure reproducibility, three experimental runs were
conducted at CD of 15 A/m2 and 5-ON/20-OFF exposure mode.
These electrical operating conditions were selected based on the
results generated by a series of batch tests of electro-bioreactor.
The initial concentration of mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS)
was 4000 mg/l. Hydraulic retention time (HRT) for all runs was
13 h. Solid retention time (SRT) was set to 20 d for Run 1 and Run
2, and 150 d for Run 3. Different SRT were tested to evaluate the
enhancement of sludge dewaterability at different operating conditions. Each run was operated for at least 25 d. A conventional

137

ON/OFF control
P
Pressure gauge

Feed
pump
Permeate

Blower
F
Flow meter
Fig. 1. Experimental setup of SMEBR (Elektorowicz et al. [23]).

membrane bioreactor (MBR) was run side-by side at the same HRT
and SRT for comparison. Both reactors were fed with synthetic
wastewater composed of glucose (665 mg/l), peptone (85 mg/l),
yeast extract (100 mg/l), ammonium sulfate (100 mg/l), potassium
phosphate (37 mg/l), magnesium sulfate (40 mg/l),manganese
sulfate (4.5 mg/l), iron sulfate (0.4 mg/l), calcium chloride (4 mg/l)
potassium chloride (25 mg/l) and sodium bicarbonate (25 mg/l).
Sludge in all runs was mixed gently at low air intensity to avoid
ocs damage. The reactors were inoculated with samples of return
activated sludge reactor brought from the wastewater treatment
plant in St Hyacinthe, QC. The same sludge samples were used in
batch tests of the electro-bioreactors.
2.2. Analyzes
The changes of sludge dewaterability were assessed based on
cake vacuum ltration, total solids (TS) content, specic resistance
to ltration (SRF), ocs occulation (ocs zeta potential and particle size distribution), bound water content, properties of MLSS
liquor (organic/inorganic ratio of MLSS and EPS concentration).
2.2.1. Particle size distribution
Flocs particle size distribution was measured using the Partica
LA-950V2 laser diffraction particle size analyzer (Horiba, USA). To
avoid the damage of the ocs through sampling, 5 to 10 ml of the
activated sludge was taken by a syringe with 2 mm opening. The
sample was stirred gently in the syringe before injecting in the
instrument. The refractive index was set to 1.4.
2.2.2. Zeta potential
A 50 ml sludge sample was centrifuged at 4000 rpm for 20 min.
The supernatant was discarded and mixed with a few drops of the
activated sludge. This mixture was placed inside the electrophoretic cell of Zeta Meter 3.0 (Zeta-Meter Inc., USA) for zeta
potential measurement of ocs. The nal value was given as an
average of 10 readings.
2.2.3. Sludge lterability (SRF)
Sample sludge of 50 to 100 ml was ltered in a Buchner funnel
under a vacuum of 100 kPa, where Whitman 40 lter paper was

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S. Ibeid et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 494 (2015) 136142

used with surface area of 0.01 m2. The lter paper was wetted
with distilled water and then dried by the vacuum pump before
the activated sludge lterability test started. During measurements, the ltrate volume V (m3) was recorded versus time t (s).
The slope b (s/m6) of the resulting line of t/V on the Y-axis and V
on the X-axis was calculated and inserted in Eq. (1) to obtain the
sludge lterability (SRF, m/kg):

SRF = 2b A2 TMP / C

(1)

35 A/m2 were attributed to the amount of Al 3 released from the

anode. High production of aluminum ions led to the neutralization
of the negative charge on the solid surfaces until a positive zeta
potential was reached (Table 1). Since the observed pH of the
sludge liquor during the experiments under all operating conditions in this study was slightly alkaline, the solid surfaces were
negatively charged and the electrical double layer was dominated
by cations. Values of pH were between 8 and 9 while the maximum pH was obtained at CD 35 A/m2.

where A is the ltration area (m ), TMP is the vacuum pressure

(Pa), is the dynamic viscosity of the ltrate (mPa s), C is the mass
of solid per unit volume (kg/m3).
2.2.4. Soluble EPS
Soluble EPS was measured as the summation of proteins and
polysaccharides in the sludge supernatant. Proteins and polysaccharides were measured calorimetrically following Dubois et al.
[23] and Lowery et al. [24] methods, respectively. The term soluble
EPS was used interchangeably with soluble microbial products
(SMP) in this paper.
2.2.5. Activated sludge
The activated sludge was brought from the wastewater treatment plant in St Hyacinthe, QC, Canada over a period of eight
months. Therefore, the initial sludge properties including the
concentration of SMP, colloid and oc size varied due to seasonal
uctuations.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Changes of zeta potential: batch electro-bioreactors
The magnitude of zeta potential determines the capability of
microbial ocs to aggregate. The closer the magnitude of zeta
potential to zero the lower the repulsive forces between ocs and
the higher the opportunity to form larger ocs. Dissolution of the
aluminum anode under DC eld produces Al ions that are directly
involved in electro-coagulation process. Aluminum ions are able to
neutralize the negative charge of microbial ocs and thereby reduce the repulsive forces between the ocs. In this study, the initial magnitude of zeta potential (without DC) of the microbial
ocs ranged between 12 and  40 mV. Since microbial ocs exist
at different sizes (ranging from a few micrometers up to more than
200 m), they provided different concentrations and distributions
of the functional groups within the ocs leading to different values
of zeta potential within the same sludge liquor. This study showed
that, the application of a low CD did not show any substantial
changes in zeta potential, while a CD between 20 and 35 A/m2
exhibited signicant changes for some pools of microbial ocs
(Table 1). The magnitude of zeta potential was reduced considerably under different electrical modes to reach values around
zero. Such changes in zeta potentials under CD between 20 and

3.2. Changes of oc size: batch electro-bioreactors

Mean particle size diameter (PSD) of the oc size changed over
the operating period depending on the CD value. Application of a
lower CD (between 5 and 12 A/m2) showed a slight increase of the
oc size except at continuous-ON electrical mode at low MLSS.
However, CD between 15 and 35 A/m2 showed a substantial increase (up to 60%) of the oc size for all electrical modes and MLSS
concentrations (Fig. 2ac). An increase of the oc size between
20% and 50% was maintained over the whole exposure period at all
operating conditions. It was assumed that occulation was mainly
due to the reduction of the repulsive forces between the ocs by
reducing the magnitude of zeta potential and due to the enhanced
interactive contacts between the ocs. However, oc size decreased over time. It was speculated that bound water was removed from the ocs due to electroosmosis phenomena, which
led to ocs shrinkage. New particles composed of inorganic aluminum hydroxides or particles of organic/inorganic nature might
also be formed. The trend of oc size initial increase followed by a
recession was observed whenever the CD was strong enough to
cause occulation and removal of bound water. However, the rate
of electrokinetic phenomena depended also on the electrical
mode. Electrical modes with shorter time-OFF showed a faster
increase of ocs size and faster extraction of bound water.
Therefore, the capability of the DC eld to cause occulation and
extraction of the tightly bound water from the microbial ocs is
benecial to the improvement of sludge lterability.
3.3. Changing of sludge organic content: batch electro-bioreactors
Results showed that the ratio of volatile suspended solids (VSS)
to the MLSS was stable around 0.82 in the control reactor. The VSS/
MLSS ratio, which indicates the fraction of organic matter, was
reduced in the reactors after the activation of the DC eld; it was
between 0.3 and 0.6 depending on CD and exposure mode. The
reduction of the VSS/MLSS ratio was related to the formation of
inorganic aluminum hydroxide in the electro-bioreactor reactor,
which led to reduction of the organic fraction and made the extraction of water much easier. The reduction of organic fraction in
activated sludge ocs was accompanied by a substantial reduction
of soluble and colloidal organic materials from the liquid phase
through the formation of complexes with aluminum hydroxides.
The concentration of colloidal organic materials was up to 99%,
while the concentration of soluble EPS (SMP) was reduced: up to

Table 1
Changes of microbial ocs zeta potential (in mV) over 70 h operating period at CD of 20 to 25 A/m2 and MLSS of 3000 mg/l.
Testing time (h)

Exposure mode (time-on/time-off) in minutes

5/5

0
50
70

5/10

5/5

5/20

Continuous

Control

Max.

Min.

Max.

Min.

Max.

Min.

Max.

Min.

Max.

Min.

Max.

Min.

 12
50
22

 32
 30
0

 12
 10
20

 32
 20
0

 12
 10
6

 32
 22
 14

 12
8
2

 32
 19
 16

 12
20
35

 32
 20
5

 12
 14
 14

 32
 31
 23

139

mean PSD (m)

S. Ibeid et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 494 (2015) 136142

mean PSD (m)

time (h)

time (h)

mean PSD (m)

5'-on/5'-off
5'-on/10'-off
5'-on/15'-off
5'-on/20'-off
cont.-on
control

time (h)
Fig. 2. Changes of microbial oc mean particle size diameter (PSD) over time at CD 15 to 35 A/m2 at: (A) MLSS 4700 mg/l, (B) MLSS 9000 mg/l; (C) MLSS 14,000 mg/l.

Fig. 3. Ratio of (electro-bioreactor SRF)/(control SRF) vs. electrical exposure mode for different concentrations of MLSS (A) 3000 mg/l, (B) 9000 mg/l, (C) 14,000 mg/l) at
CD 15 to 35 A/m2 measured at the end of 90 h operating period.

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S. Ibeid et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 494 (2015) 136142

90% for polysaccharides and up to 50% for proteins. The removal of

these viscous organic materials from the sludge also inuenced
the enhancement of sludge lterability.
3.4. Enhancing sludge dewaterability: batch electro-bioreactors
The conductance of current through the electrical double layer
causes water molecules to move towards the electrodes through
electroosmosis phenomena. Since pH of the sludge liquor observed in this study was slightly alkaline, the solid surfaces were
negatively charged and the electrical double layer was dominated
by cations. Under a DC eld, these cations have a tendency to
move towards the cathode simultaneously prompting the movement of bound water molecules.
It was observed that CD between 15 and 35 A/m2 caused a
substantial removal of bound water and thus enhanced sludge
dewaterability. Subsequently, the reduction of SRF ranged from a
few up to over 200 times for almost all concentrations of MLSS and
all electrical exposure modes (Fig. 3). Electroosmosis in addition to
other electrokinetic processes (e.g. oxidation, electrophoretic and
ions' motions) changed the structure and nature of organic fraction of sludge; thus, contributed to the substantial improvement of
sludge lterability. At MLSS3000 mg/l, the continuous-ON exposure modes increased the SRF by nearly two times due to its
adverse effect on the microbial cell viability that provoked the
release of SMP into the sludge liquor. Therefore, continuous-ON
mode is not recommended neither for lower MLSS concentrations
(below 3000 mg/l) nor for higher MLSS concentrations (above
8000 mg/l). At higher MLSS and continuous-ON mode, an accumulation of the suspended solids on the anode surface was observed and caused a reduction of CD by more than 50%. Exceptionally, at this mode, a high intensity of air ow was needed to
prevent the deposition of solids on the electrodes, which subsequently led to the mechanical disintegration of microbial ocs.
At a CD lower than 8 A/m2, no extraction of bound water observed, except for the 5-ON/5-OFF electrical mode at
MLSS 15,000 mg/l (Fig. 4A). In contrast, at the other exposure
modes, an increase of SRF and deteriorated sludge lterability
were observed. When the CD was above 25 A/m2 at the end of the
operating period, the SRF decreased for all exposure modes except
for 5-ON/5-OFF. At this mode, microorganisms were unable to
tolerate the magnitude and frequency of the DC eld, which
caused the release of SMP and subsequently increased SRF
(Fig. 4B).
3.5. Specic resistance to ltration (SRF) and membrane fouling:
SMEBR continuous ow
Considering the best test results from batch electro-bioreactors,
the SMEBR system was set up at the CD15 A/m2 and an exposure
mode of 5-ON/20-OFF. It was assumed that such operating

conditions would enhance successfully sludge lterability and

minimize energy consumption as well as electrode dissolution.
The investigation of sludge behavior in the SMEBR showed a
substantial reduction of the SRF in all experimental runs (Fig. 5).
The reduction of the SRF in the SMEBR required a few days to
reach its maximum reduction after which the SRF value was stabilized. The average SRF for Run 1 and Run 2 (operated at
SRT 20 d) was 24  1012 (standard deviation SD 15  1012), while
the SMEBR operated simultaneously at the same conditions exhibited an average SRF equal to 3.2  1012 m/kg (SD 2.6  1012 m/
kg). Thus, SMEBR reduced SRF by almost 8 times than that of the
MBR under the operating conditions of Run1 and Run 2. In Run 3
(operated at SRT equal to 150 d) the SRF for MBR was 688  1012 m/
kg (SD 251  1012 m/kg), while the rst 10 d of non-steady state
conditions were excluded from calculation. Simultaneously, the
SMEBR reduced SRF by 86 times as the average SRF stabilized at
8  1012 m/kg (SD 3.7  1012 m/kg).
Regardless of the applied SRT, several factors contributed to the
better sludge dewaterability in the SMEBR over the MBR, namely:
the reduction of SMP, the reduction of ocs' bound water, the reduction of VSS/MLSS ratio and the enhancement of bio-occulation. At SRT of 150 d (Run 3), the SMEBR maintained SMP concentrations between 75 and 85 mg/l compared to the MBR where
the concentration uctuated between 130 and 195 mg/l. At SRT of
20 d (Run 1 and Run 2), the concentrations of SMP were almost
twice lower in the SMEBR (4060 mg/l) than in the MBR (75
135 mg/l). The removal of SMP by at least 40% in the SMEBR
through electro-coagulation was an important reason for the enhancement of sludge dewaterability, particularly at long SRT. The
average tightly bound water for the SMEBR sludge in Run 3 was
6.8 (SD 1.4) g water/g TS compared to 20 (SD 6.3) g water/g TS
in the MBR. In Run 1 and Run 2, because of the short SRT and
lower SMP concentrations, the tightly bound water was on average
equal to 0.54 (SD 0.1) and 1.2 (SD 0.3) g water/g TS for SMEBR
and MBR, respectively. The VSS/MLSS ratio in the MBR was on
average equal to 0.85 (SD 0.08) for all runs; however, in the
SMEBR the ratio was reduced to 0.52 (SD 0.24) for Run 1 and Run
2 and to 0.59 (SD 0.22) for Run 3. In all runs the mean PSD of the
ocs was stable in the MBR (around 100 m), while in the SMEBR
the PSD increased up to 200 m. Twice bigger ocs size in SMEBR
was due to the occulation directly related to the reduction of the
absolute value of zeta potential. The magnitude of zeta potential in
the SMEBR was between  20 and  25 mV compared to  30 and
 35 mV in the MBR. In summary, the SMEBR system reduced SRF
through removal of organic viscous materials mainly through
electrocoagulation and/or through attenuating their impact
through decreasing the VSS/MLSS ratio.
3.6. Dewaterability and membrane fouling
This

study

proved the feasibility of

improving

sludge

Fig. 4. Ratio of sludge (electro-bioreactor SRF)/(control SRF) vs. electrical exposure mode: (A) CD 8 to 12 A/m2, MLSS 15,000 mg/l, (at the end of 90 h operating period);
(B) CD 25 A/m2, MLSS 15,000 mg/l (at the end of 130 h of operating period).

S. Ibeid et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 494 (2015) 136142

141

Fig. 5. Evolution of specic resistance to ltration over time in SMEBR and MBR. Run 1 and Run 2 operated at SRT 150 d, Run 3 operated at SRT 20 d.

Fig. 6. Cake layer after vacuum ltration (100 kPa) of WAS: (A) non-electro-conditioned sludge in MBR, initial TS 0.5%; nal TS 4%; time to lter 40 ml 4 min. VSS/
MLSS 0.8. No cracking was observed; (B) electro-conditioned sludge in SMEBR, initial TS 0.5%; nal TS 18%; time to lter 40 ml 10 s; VSS/MLSS 0.6. Cracking was
observed after 20 s.

dewaterability by electro-conditioning when CD between 15 and

35 A/m2 was applied. Considering this range of CD, an average
cake total solids (TS) of 18% (SD 1.6%) was achieved in batch and
continuous ow electro-bioreactors compared to a TS of 7%
(SD 1.7%) for the control reactor when vacuum dewatering tests
were carried out (Fig. 6). These values were obtained based on 10
measurements of TS of the cake layer formed after vacuum pressure of 100 kPa was applied to an initial sludge containing TS
between 0.5% and 1%. Such measurements have also permitted to
conclude that in addition to improving sludge lterability, electroconditioned sludge is likely to reduce membrane fouling if membrane modules are adopted as a method of liquidsolid separation.
Bani-Melhem and Elektorowicz [25] reported that SMEBR caused
16.3% reduction of membrane fouling rate, while Ibeid et al. [20]
reported that membrane fouling rate, expressed as the change in
the trans-membrane pressure per day (kPa/d) was decreased by
5.8 (SD 2.4), 5.1 (SD 2.4) and 1.3 (SD 0.7) times, at SMP concentrations of 195 to 210, 65 to 135 and less than 65 mg/l, respectively, while under a pilot scale study membrane fouling rate
was reduced by 3 times. Fig. 6 shows the difference between the
conventional (Fig. 6A) and electro-conditioned (Fig. 6B) sludge in
terms of structure, morphology, attachment to ltration membrane, size and color. Additional observation of electro-bioreactors
revealed a gradual sludge color change to gray due to the formation of inorganic aluminum hydroxides over time. Furthermore,
the ratio of the [xed suspended solids (FSS)]/[volatile suspended

solids (VSS)] was found to be stable in the control reactor (around

0.8), while in the electro-bioreactor, the ratio varied between
0.4 and 0.7 depending on CD value and exposure mode. It should
be noted that the dewatering process is recommended to be performed directly after the electro-conditioning process because any
delay might cause the release of SMP that will deteriorate sludge
dewaterability. However, a few hours of delay did not show any
change to sludge stability and did not exhibit negative impacts.
Sludge electro-conditioning is a pre-dewatering process that depends on different electrokinetic reactions and it is recommended
to a sludge of less than 1.5% TS. Sludge electro-conditioning is
different from the already existing electrokinetic systems that are
directly used for sludge dewatering at higher TS ( 44%) and depends mostly on electroosmotic transport [17,18], which sometimes is coupled with a pressure system.
Based on the laboratory batch, continuous results and previous
pilot tests [21] of the SMEBR system, the cost of electro-conditioning of one cubic meter of WAS requires 5 kWh, while the
consumption of electrode is 160 g. The cost was calculated at 15 A/
m2 CD, intermittent exposure mode of 5-ON/20-OFF and 2 d HRT.
The cost could be reduced by half in cases where 1 d HRT is
acceptable (e.g. sludge with low MLSS and SMP concentrations).
Considering this low cost, sludge electro-conditioning appears to
be a competitive solution for an enhanced sludge dewatering. Eq.
(2) was used to calculate the energy consumption, where U is
voltage (V), I is the current (A), t is the time (h), r is ratio of time-

S. Ibeid et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 494 (2015) 136142

142

ON/ (time-ON time-OFF) and V is sludge volume (m3). Faraday's

law was used to calculate the electrode consumption (Eq. (3)),
where I is the current (A), Mw is the aluminum molecular weight
(g/mole), t is the time (s), F is Faraday's constant (96,485 A s/mol),
V is sludge volume (l), and z is the number of electrons transferred
in the reaction at the electrode. Generally, the energy costs would
be proportional to the r ratio.

Energy consumption =

(U . I . t . r )/1000
V

Electrode consumption (g /l) =

I . Mw . t r
z. F . V

(2)

(3)

As a result of electrocoagulation, the percentage of aluminum

based on theoretical calculations in the sludge (w/w) could be
between 0.4% and 2%. This percentage is consistent with what
Hasan et al. [28] found based on experimental measurements that
the percentage of aluminum is 0.4% as the majority of aluminum is
deposited on the electrode surfaces. This percentage is not likely to
cause toxicity to plants and could be reused as agricultural soil
amendment, particularly in alkaline soils where the extractable
aluminum is very limited. It was found that up to 25% alum/sludge
ratio did not increase aluminum uptake by plants and no toxicity
was observed [26,27].

4. Conclusions
The study proved feasibility of enhancing WAS dewaterability
by sludge electro-conditioning in electro-bioreactors at batch and
continuous ow operating conditions. In batch electro-bioreactors,
the SRF was decreased from a few to 200 times (comparing to
control reactor), in relation to the concentration of MLSS, electrical
exposure mode and CD value. In continuous ow electro-bioreactors (SMEBR) SRF was decreased compared to the conventional
MBR by 8 and 86 times at SRT 20 d and 150 d, respectively. The CD
value ranging between 15 and 35 A/m2 signicantly improved the
SRF, mainly due to the extraction of microbial ocs bound water
through electroosmosis in conjunction with the removal of SMP
and colloidal organics from sludge liquor, which changed sludge
morphological and structural nature. At such CD, oc mean particle size was found to be shrinking by 8% to 17% due to water
extraction. At lower CD (below 8 A/m2) an increase of the SRF was
observed, potentially due to the difculty in removing bound
water. It was demonstrated that the application of an adequate CD
and exposure mode to batch and continuous ow electro-bioreactors has a potential to enhance sludge dewaterability to levels
that could not be achieved by conventional dewatering methods.
The average cake total solids obtained after 100 kPa vacuum ltration at bench scale batch and continuous electro-bioreactors
was equal to 18% compared to 7% for the reference control sludge
without electro-dewatering enhancement. The power and electrode consumption for electro-conditioning of one cubic meter of
sludge using SMEBR system was estimated to be as low as 2.5 kWh
and 80 g, respectively. The generated data can be used for further
development of an electro-conditioning unit prior to the application of any type of sludge thickening process.

Acknowledgments
Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada
(NSERC) Strategic Project 350666 granted to Dr. M. Elektorowicz

and Dr. J.A. Oleszkiewicz is acknowledged. The authors acknowledge kind cooperation of the employees of the wastewater treatment plant in St Hyacinthe, QC.

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