Membrane Bioreactors for Wastewater Treatment: Recent Advances, Challenges, and Future Perspectives

Abstract

Wastewater treatment with the aid of membrane technology is a mindful strategy to alleviate the problem of water scarcity. Membrane bioreactors can regenerate wastewater efficiently by combining simple ultrafiltration or microfiltration membranes with the process of activated sludge. This review chapter unwinds the recent advancements of membrane bioreactor research thereby providing a deeper insight into the basic MBR process, building blocks, process design, operating parameters, various possible configurations, mass transfer phenomenon, and characterizations involved. Further, polymer selection for the design of membranes used in MBR is presented in detail. In the later part of the chapter, some key companies producing membranes for MBR are discussed in order to provide the real scenario of MBR application. Fouling is a major issue that reduces the performance of a reactor. Hence, various types of fouling and corresponding cleansing techniques are described in the latter part of the chapter. Under this, biological treatment is described in detail, including the most commonly explored techniques such as quorum quenching and enzymatic disruption. The chapter also scrutinizes the recent advancements of MBR applications such as pollutant elimination, configuration development, sludge reduction, energy-uptake reduction, life cycle reduction (LCR), and cost analysis. Finally, the future perspectives on MBR development are highlighted to draw the researchers’ attention to this area. © 2024 selection and editorial matter, Anil Kumar Pabby; S. Ranil Wickramasinghe; and Ana- Maria Sastre; individual chapters, the contributors.