EFFECTIVENESS OF THE MEMBRANE BIOREACTOR IN THE BIODEGRADATION OF HIGH-MOLECULAR-WEIGHT COMPOUNDS

The activated sludge process has been used extensively to treat munici pal wastewater. The membrane bioreactor (MBR) process is a modificatio n of the conventional activated sludge process where the clarifier is replaced with a membrane system for separation between the mixed liquo r and the effluent. This paper presents the biological and physical pe rformance data of a pilot-scale membrane bioreactor system, fed with a synthetic wastewater. At steady state, particularly high effluent qua lity was obtained and maintained for an extended period of time. Heter otrophic plate counting showed that the membrane retains heterotrophic microorganisms. Bacteriophage MS-2 was used to determine the retentio n of viruses. The membrane proved to retain the MS-2 virus. Copyright (C) 1996 IAWQ. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.