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Continuous microfiltration (CMF) submerged or pressurized membranes, has been widely used recently as a treatment process for the removal of particles and pathogens from water and wastewater. The CMF technology has great potential for wide ranging applications including treatment of surface seawater, municipal and industrial wastewater treatment, groundwater and drinking water. The technical feasibility of this process has been demonstrated through a number of pilot and bench scale research studies in the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait. Full scale systems are operational in various parts of the world. The CMF process is already considered as a viable alternative for many waste treatments. The emergence of submerged membranes that utilize fairly economical polymer-based membranes and require less energy than external membranes has revolutionized municipal wastewater treatment and has tremendous potential in larger scale, high volume throughput facilities across the globe. This paper discusses the technical and analytical performance of two types of microfiltration system, one with submerged membranes and the other with pressurized membranes. The paper covers performance data and discusses the technical parameters of water productivity and filtrate quality. It also covers the evaluation of membrane performance, system availability and techno-economic study for both systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activated sludge systems (ASSs) are the most globally used wastewater treatment systems. However, there is very little information about the operational practices of ASSs in developing countries. This paper presents how the Riqqa and Umm-Al-Haiman ASSs, in Kuwait, are operated and the methodology used to evaluate and compare their performances. Over a period of 9 months, weekly samples of the influents, aeration tank mixed liquors, and secondary effluents were collected and analyzed according to standard methods. Accordingly, the operational variables of the systems were estimated. The obtained results indicate that the plants were not operated within their recommended design values. The Riqqa ASS was inadequately aerated and hydraulically and organically overloaded, while the Umm-Al-Haiman ASS was operated at a very high mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) value. The method used by this study proved to be useful for identifying the operational problems of the studied ASSs, and it can be used to evaluating the performances of other ASSs.