Treatment of Industrial Wastewater by Membrane Bioreactors

Membrane Bioreactors (MBRs) have attracted a significant attention of scientists and engineers in the past two decades. Improvement of membrane technologies coupled with experiences gained from application of membranes in different industrial processes have opened a gamut of opportunities in industrial wastewater treatment. The solidliquid separation that is conventionally carried out in gravity-based clarifier is replaced by membrane filtration in a MBR system thus combining the strength of biological treatment processes and efficiency of membrane filtration. This and several other advantages have made the MBR system ideally suited for treatment of strong industrial wastewater and reclamation of water. By late 1990s many commercial application of MBR can be noted in industries and each year this number is increasing rapidly. Researches on MBRs are increasingly funded by municipal councils, industries, membrane and packaged wastewater treatment plant manufacturers, which is a clear sign of popularity and potential of MBR.