Review on MBR Technologies for Emerging Pollutant Removal from Wastewater and Their Associated Antifouling Strategies

Abstract

It was necessary to reclaim water from wastewater to tackle water scarcity issues. However, it was difficult to treat waste-water for resue purpose through conventinal treatment technologies due to the wastewater contains various emerging contaminants. Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) were promising techniques to reclaim wastewater, which hybrid activity sludge and membrane technol- ogies. Although it was a challenge to eliminate the emerging contaminants efficiently through conventional MBRs due to specific chem- ical structures of these chemicals, more and more novel hybrid MBRs were applied to the removal of emerging contaminants. The evo- lution of MBR systems for treating emerging pollutants was summarized in this review. In addition, the process of biofouling on mem- branes and the development of relevant antifouling technologies were investigated. Besides, the perspectives of MBR systems on the ap- plication of emerging pollutant treatment were provided, which would help support the research and development of technologies in the field of water reclaiming in the future.

Keywords: MBR, emerging pollutants, EPSs, SMPs, antifouling