Anaerobic membrane bioreactors for sustainable and energy efficient municipal wastewater treatment

Abstract This book chapter examines the potential of anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) technology to serve as future green technology in municipal wastewater (MWW) treatment. The potential is found significant since AnMBR treatment can effectively convert organics in wastewater to biogas for subsequent energy production, remove a board range of emerging pollutants related to water reuse, and realize nutrient removal and recovery. Currently, AnMBRs are starting to evolve to the next level for sustainable and energy-efficient operation. New AnMBRs have attracted a lot of interest due to better treatment efficiency, bioenergy recovery, and fouling mitigation when combined with many novel technologies such as granular technology, dynamic membrane, fluidized media, forward osmosis, and membrane distillation. Still, issues associated with long-term stability, salinity build-up, methane loss, and membrane fouling need to be addressed to advance AnMBRs for energy-efficient MWW treatment.