International Journal of Research in Advent Technology, Vol.7, No.4, April 2019 E-ISSN: 2321-9637 Available online at www.ijrat.org 35 Development of a Novel Submerged Membrane Bioreactor (SMBR) for Treatment of Textile Wastewater Ganpat B. More* 1 , Shridhar K. Jadhav 2 , Sanjaykumar R. Thorat 3 1,2,3 School of Environmental and Earth Sciences, Kavayitri Bahinabai Chaudhari North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon. Email: moreganpat05@gmail.com 1 , shridhar.skjadhav@gmail.com 2 , drst118@gmail.com 3 Abstract- The present study was conducted to investigate the performance of a commercial membrane in a pilot- scale submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR) model for the treatment of synthetic textile wastewater with reactive dye as a source of colour. The SMBR model was aerobically operated for about 3 months at continuous mode of operation at three different HRTs of 8,6 and 4 h with a usual permeate flux of 18 L/m 2 /h, respectively. Throughout the entire operation, an excess amount of F/M ration (0.07-0.17 g BOD/g MLSS. d), OLR (0.31-1.85 kg BOD₅/m³. d) and declined HRT was not negatively impacted. During the overall performance of SMBR model, except conductivity, TDS and TP, a high amount of COD, BOD5, NO3-N, TSS, Turbidity and colour removal was achieved. The average removal of COD, BOD5, NO3-N, TSS, Turbidity and colour were 91.41%, 92.47%, 90.76, 99.35%, 98.35 and 92.66%, respectively. The membrane fouling was prevented by covering a cage of wire mesh, regular backwashing and chemical cleaning to maintain constant permeate flux. The result indicated that synthetic textile wastewater can be effectively treated by the SMBR model and it has been recommended for the treatment of real textile wastewater. Keywords: Reactive dye; submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR); Synthetic textile wastewater; Colour; Treatment 1. INTRODUCTION The reuse of water is becoming most important because, we are continuously facing shortage of water. Hence, the aim of wastewater treatment is not only to abatement of pollutants that impacts on the aquatic life but also meets to fulfill the essential water quality criteria for their reuse [1]. The textile industrial sector utilizes huge amount of water and hence it generates large water footmark in the world. Most of the water utilized in the textile industry during the process of dyeing, preparation and finishing. These processes require huge quantity of water, as of 5 to 40 times higher than the weight of fibre and resulting large amount of wastewater has been generated [2]. Designed to produce one-ton fabric, around 20-350 m 3 of water has been utilized [3]. Particularly in India, about 2100 units of textile industry are running in the different states. They consume nearly 200 m 3 /d of water and release 1.5 million litres of effluent for each 600 km of fabric per day [4,5]. The major pollutants in wastewater from textile industry can significantly fluctuate and are usually categorized by excessive amounts of constant substances for example, organics, dyes, toxicants, surfactants, inhibitory compounds, chlorinated compounds, salts and heavy metals, in addition to coloured dyes are the extremely challenging components of the wastewater [6,7,8,9]. In the conventional textile treatment of wastewater, common practices applied are adsorption, coagulation, chemical precipitation, biological treatment, electrochemical destruction, flotation, etc. [3,6,9,10]. These conventional processes of treatment consume large amount of energy, manpower and chemicals, which generates chemical waste that requires further treatment [11]. In order to improve wastewater quality, options of advanced treatment have most interested in the textile wastewater treatment [6,12,13]. Also, many textile industries want to get better wastewater quality to meet the fresh water standards, due to rising water scarcity as well as strict legislations to save the aquatic environment [14]. To improve wastewater quality as compare to permissible standards, a more effective as well as competent technology to remove colour and organic pollutants must be recognized. Membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology is a one of the most promising technology that provides the option to get better quality of the wastewater [15]. An MBR can be demarcated as combined biological degradation process for wastewater with the help of membrane filtration [6,16,17]. Membrane bioreactor (MBR) is working with the conventional activated sludge process in combination with microfiltration and ultrafiltration membrane for solid separation. As compare to conventional activated sludge process, MBR has main advantages to complete solids removal, a substantial physical disinfection ability, very high amounts of carbon, nitrogen compounds and colour removal [18,19]. Additionally, an SMBR have capacity to free up bacteria and make permeate potential for reuse