Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor for Wastewater Treatment

As an emerging wastewater treatment technology, anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) shows advantages in excellent efficiency for pollutant removal and energy recovery. The promotion of AnMBR is determined by the requirement, the advancement of fundamental principles, and the development of novel configurations. The materials of membrane greatly influence AnMBR performance. Both in situ and ex situ controlling strategies have been developed depending on the type of membrane fouling. Following, the progress and application cases of AnMBR in treating low-strength municipal wastewater (pilot scale) and high-strength industrial wastewater (full scale) are comprehensively introduced in terms of advantages and bottlenecks. For municipal wastewater treatment, the major bottlenecks toward full-scale applications underline in the trade-off between low energy recovery potential and energy consumption for stable operation, as well as carbon emissions from dissolved methane at low temperatures. For industrial wastewater treatment, membrane fouling when treating wastewater with high suspended solids is challenging due to the sustained operation and maintenance cost. The new research trends in AnMBR include but are not limited to emerging contaminants removal and advanced strategies for mitigating membrane fouling. The development of AnMBR can significantly contribute to low-carbon wastewater treatment practices.