Point source detoxification of an industrially produced 3,4-dichloroaniline-manufacture wastewater using a membrane bioreactor

A membrane bioreactor has been used to treat an industrially produced waste-water containing aniline, 4-chloroaniline, 2,3-dichloroaniline and 3,4-dichloroaniline. Conventional direct biological treatment of such effluents cannot be implemented without some form of pretreatment or dilution because of the hostile inorganic composition of the waste-water. In order to overcome this problem a membrane separation step selectively removes the organics from the waste-water and subsequent biodegradation takes place in the biological growth compartment of the reactor system. At a waste-water flow rate of 69 ml h^–1 (corresponding to a contact time of approximately 1.5 h) over 99% of the organic compounds quoted above were removed and biodegraded.Correspondence to: A. G. Livingston