| Abstract: | The goal of this work is to develop a mathematical model to describe a continuous aerobic membrane bioreactor (MBR) for the treatment of different kinds of wastewater. Firstly, the experimental setup and the materials and methods to obtain data for the model verification are described. Secondly, a black box model is developed and verified for size containing wastewater. The model calculates output streams and concentrations from input streams and compositions using distribution coefficients. These coefficients are derived from experimental data. In a third step, two shortcut models of different complexity are developed. Both shortcut models use the black box balancing as a basis. However, the component balances for carbon and oxygen are no longer modeled by constant distribution coefficients. The basic shortcut model introduces Monod kinetics to modify the carbon balance. The enhanced shortcut model introduces transport laws for dissolved oxygen supply and combines the Monod kinetics with an additional term for oxygen limitation to model biological growth. The models show an increasing degree of agreement. |
