ABSTRACT

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) represent the best available technology for municipal and wastewater treatment, as confirmed by the number of wastewater treatment plants based on MBRs in operation worldwide. However, MBRs are not able to effectively reject some substances, like low molecular weight organic compounds found in wastewaters. Therefore, further improvements are needed. In this respect, coupling MBRs with high-retention membrane processes, like reverse osmosis (RO) and membrane distillation (MD), was investigated in the past years. In this paper, the main MBR features and their commercial development are presented. Their performance when coupled with RO and with MD units is discussed, as well as limitations toward a large-scale implementation, with particular emphasis on the further research needed in the field. Finally, MBR-RO and MBR-MD integrated systems are compared in terms of the most significant parameters. Actions to take in order to overcome linked issues are also proposed.

摘要

膜生物反应器 (MBR) 代表了市政和废水处理的最佳可用技术，世界范围内运行的基于 MBR 的废水处理厂的数量证实了这一点。然而，MBR 无法有效去除某些物质，例如废水中发现的低分子量有机化合物。因此，需要进一步改进。在这方面，过去几年研究了将 MBR 与高保留膜工艺（如反渗透 (RO) 和膜蒸馏 (MD)）相结合。本文介绍了 MBR 的主要特点及其商业发展。讨论了它们与 RO 和 MD 装置结合使用时的性能，以及大规模实施的局限性，特别强调了该领域需要的进一步研究。最后，MBR-RO 和 MBR-MD 集成系统在最重要的参数方面进行了比较。还提出了为克服相关问题而采取的行动。